Contributions
3,765 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI thank my right hon. Friend for his support, which means a lot to me because the topic of Brexit is something that he has thought and done a lot about over the years. He is…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolThe UK is and will remain a member of the ECHR. Today’s agreement is about the Belfast/Good Friday agreement—the hon. Lady was right to highlight it—and restoring the balance in…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolMy right hon. and learned Friend makes an excellent point. He will remember that the Government had to drop from the UKIM Bill certain provisions guaranteeing unfettered access…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI thank my right hon. Friend for his support and for the advice that he has provided to me and the team. This is obviously an area that he knows well from his own experience, and…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI hope that the hon. Gentleman takes the time to study the deal in detail, and that he will see, after he has done that, that it delivers against the objectives that I set out,…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolMy hon. Friend is absolutely right, and it is something that I know the Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe is specifically focused…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolYes, as a simple matter of fact, the European Court of Justice is the final arbiter on matters of EU law. That is what the President said; she is right. That is simply the legal…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI thank my right hon. Friend for his support. He is right to highlight the many areas of co-operation that we can and should have with the European Union. Science and research is…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI thank my right hon. and learned Friend for his chairmanship of the partnership from our side. He and they do valuable work, and I have been grateful—as have the Secretaries of…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI join the hon. Gentleman in paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Minister of State. He is absolutely right to shower praise on him. Not only has my hon. Friend been instrumental…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for her work but also for her comments just now, which were powerful and moving. She is right that we must look forward, and we will not let…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention and also for the engagement that he has had with me and the Secretary of State. It is good to talk. There has been plenty of that,…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI thank my hon. Friend for his warm words of support and assure him that the Foreign Secretary, in particular, is intensely engaged with his counterparts in Spain to try to find a…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI just assure the hon. Gentleman that there is a well-defined process for the exercise of the Stormont brake. He is right: there should be, because it is a very serious step. It…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolMy hon. Friend makes an excellent point from his experience as a Home Office Minister. He is absolutely right that we need to enforce these lanes; that is the assurance that we…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI do believe that the new arrangement we have made—the Windsor framework—provides the basis for peace, prosperity and stability in Northern Ireland. That is why I have brought it…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolThis is incredibly important. What we should be focused on is Stormont being up and running. The people of Northern Ireland need and deserve their institutions to be functioning…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolWith the greatest respect, I would say to my right hon. Friend that this is also about the people of Northern Ireland. It is about the communities in Northern Ireland and the…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolNo. It is that approach—talking about it in the hon. Lady’s terms—that creates the uncertainty. It is a perfectly reasonable thing for the United Kingdom to re-examine all the…27 Feb 2023HANSARD Northern Ireland ProtocolI would say to the hon. Gentleman that I have spent a lot of time, care and attention listening to, and engaging with, the concerns of Unionism in Northern Ireland—their concerns…27 Feb 2023