John Baron MP intervenes in ‘no deal’ Debate

MP says Government must retain control because election manifesto promises could ‘turn to dust’

Yesterday in the House of Commons, the Opposition tabled a motion for debate that would have given them control of what was discussed in the Commons on 25th June, rather than the Government. The Opposition, in conjunction with other opposition parties and some Conservative MPs, would have used this opportunity to introduce a piece of legislation to rule out a no deal/WTO Brexit on 31st October.

In the Chamber, John questioned the Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer MP,

“Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman accept that if Government can not control the business in this place, we risk ignoring the wishes of the electorate when it comes to elections, and election manifesto promises will turn to dust if this sort of thing is allowed to continue?”

The Shadow Secretary of State responded that, if the Government can not control House Business, it should not be in office.

John then intervened on the Secretary for Exiting the European Union, Rt Hon Stephen Barclay MP and said,

“May I return him to the question I posed to the shadow spokesman, to which we did not get an answer? Indeed, the only answer was that if the Government cannot control their business, they should step down. I ask one or two of our Conservative colleagues who are thinking of supporting the motion to reflect on that answer…If we go down this road, does not that set a dangerous precedent? The Government controls the business of the House so that they can honour election manifesto promises. If we can not do that, they turn to dust.”

The Secretary of State responded that John’s point was absolutely right.

John said afterwards,

“There were two issues at stake with this vote. First of all, if governments lose control of House Business, they will find it difficult to implement legislation – even if they are policies endorsed by voters in a General Election. This would do little to build trust in politics, and is why the creation of a House Business Committee was rejected as part of the wide-ranging reforms of around a decade ago.”

“The second issue is that it is quite wrong to rule out a no deal/WTO exit, as this destroys a key negotiating position. The EU never believed – correctly – that Theresa May was serious about leaving on WTO terms, and the current situation with the backstop is the result. We would all prefer to leave with a good deal, but an eternal truth is that no deal is better than a bad deal.”