John Baron MP speaks in EU Withdrawal Debate

MP says negotiators’ hands must not be tied by Parliament

Today in the House of Commons, MPs considered Lords’ Amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill.

In the Chamber, John raised the following issues,

“There is a tendency to paint Brexiteers as anti-immigration. One of the main reasons many of us voted to leave the EU was to introduce a controlled and fair immigration policy which no longer discriminates against the rest of the world outside the EU. It is also an inconvenient truth for those on the Labour benches, that such an immigration policy would also help to increase wages further – as Lord Rose, leader of the ‘remain’ campaign, admitted just before the referendum.”

“In answer to my question to the Shadow Brexit Secretary, we now have it on record, perhaps for the first time, that in pursuit of Labour’s policy of securing a customs union with the EU, it would sacrifice the country’s ability to pursue trade deals independently. Furthermore, this would betray not only the result of the referendum, but the over 80% of the electorate who voted for both main party manifestoes which promised to leave the Single Market and the Customs Union.”

“Meanwhile, as for the negotiations, we should not tie the hands of Government. This will result in a worse outcome, as anyone who has negotiated will tell you. But it also lacks precedence – it is accepted practice that Governments negotiate treaties, as was the case for the European Communities Act 1972, the Lisbon Treaty, the Nice Treaty, the Amsterdam Treaty, and the Maastricht Treaty. I also do not remember any argument over Parliament undertaking those treaties from people who today argue that Parliament should influence the present negotiations.”