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European Communities (Finance) Bill

I am grateful to the Chief Secretary for cross-examining me on that matter. I accepted that there would be costs to admitting some of the very poor former eastern bloc countries, but I believed the Prime Minister when he said that the rebate was non-negotiable and that the negotiations on admitting those countries were conducted on that basis. Why have the Government breached their assurance? The Chief Secretary has no explanation, and I have demonstrated that the argument that he has advanced so far is completely false.