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Topical debate and Backbench debate on Thursday, 26 January 2012, in the House of Commons, led by Natascha Engel. The answering member was Alistair Burt.

European Council

Unallotted backbench debate (part one). Motion lapsed.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
539 c430-56 
Session
2010-12
Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Denis MacShane | 539 c440-1 (Link to this contribution) I have given way to two Europhobes, and I think three would be too many. It is a real worry when one...
Jacob Rees-Mogg | 539 c440 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Show all contributions (82)
Denis MacShane | 539 c439-40 (Link to this contribution) I do not really want to get into a debate about the markets as I am also pro-market, but the markets...
Martin Horwood | 539 c442 (Link to this contribution) I shall not be drawn into that. Critically, it is for the eurozone countries to address the crisis i...
Lord Redwood | 539 c442 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman think that at this point the power to fine Greece and then fining her would ...
Martin Horwood | 539 c441-2 (Link to this contribution) First, I congratulate the Backbench Business Committee on selecting this topic for debate, although ...
Martin Horwood | 539 c443 (Link to this contribution) I am not at all in favour of scrapping health and safety regulations or those designed to protect wo...
Edward Leigh | 539 c442 (Link to this contribution) I want to make an intervention that the hon. Gentleman and I can both agree with. Does he agree with...
Martin Horwood | 539 c442-3 (Link to this contribution) I think that is right, although the point I am making is that the jobs and prosperity agenda should ...
Chris Bryant | 539 c443-4 (Link to this contribution) Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thought you were about to call somebody more senior. I ag...
Chris Bryant | 539 c444-5 (Link to this contribution) I hope we have made a lot of Polish friends. When I was a curate in High Wycombe, we had a long-stan...
Denis MacShane | 539 c444 (Link to this contribution) At a conference last week, the German film-maker, Volker Schlöndorff said how much he wished that 1 ...
Martin Horwood | 539 c446 (Link to this contribution) On the subject of the right hon. Gentleman's support for the Prime Minister, will he join me in welc...
Lord Redwood | 539 c445-6 (Link to this contribution) I rise to support the Prime Minister. I think he had no alternative but to say no to a very unsatisf...
Lord Redwood | 539 c446 (Link to this contribution) Of course the Prime Minister is right that we are in the European Union and all the time we remain i...
Lord Redwood | 539 c446 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that was the point that the hon. Gentleman wanted to make.
Mike Gapes | 539 c446 (Link to this contribution) If the right hon. Gentleman is so against the austerity deflation policies in the eurozone, why is h...
Lord Redwood | 539 c446 (Link to this contribution) Because, as I just explained, it is totally different if a country has its own currency and can use ...
Lord Redwood | 539 c435 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not understand that one has to pay to play? If we were in the room, the othe...
Mike Gapes | 539 c435 (Link to this contribution) I suspect that when the eurozone finally resolves the crisis, whether this week, which is doubtful, ...
Edward Leigh | 539 c434 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman seriously suggesting that it is wrong not to be in a room that is about as rob...
Mike Gapes | 539 c434 (Link to this contribution) I will make some progress first. As a result of the European Union Act 2011, the Prime Minister has...
Lord Redwood | 539 c434 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mike Gapes | 539 c434 (Link to this contribution) If my hon. Friend looks at Hansard, he will see that I was not blaming Britain for the problems in t...
Kelvin Hopkins | 539 c434 (Link to this contribution) I must say that I find my hon. Friend's speech somewhat astonishing in blaming Britain for the probl...
Mike Gapes | 539 c433-4 (Link to this contribution) The decision by the Prime Minister to walk away from potential agreement at the European Council in ...
Speaker | 539 c433 (Link to this contribution) I have received no indication from the Government of their intentions on this matter, but I have a h...
Mike Gapes | 539 c435 (Link to this contribution) More than half our trade is with the European Union. Our companies, and the future of the City of Lo...
Mike Gapes | 539 c435 (Link to this contribution) I have no time left. It is time that the country looked to its long-term national interests, as opp...
Lord Redwood | 539 c438 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend recognise that because of the Rotterdam entrepot effect of goods going through t...
Damian Collins | 539 c437-8 (Link to this contribution) The problem with the stability rules has been that when there should have been interventions or chal...
Denis MacShane | 539 c438 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the speech of the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins), ...
Damian Collins | 539 c438 (Link to this contribution) I thank my right hon. Friend for that important contribution. It follows my point that the future of...
Kelvin Hopkins | 539 c436 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that if European Union member states had their own currencies and coul...
Damian Collins | 539 c435-6 (Link to this contribution) Following the remarks of the hon. Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes), it should be stated clearly ...
Chris Bryant | 539 c436 (Link to this contribution) In actual fact, in countries such as Spain and Greece there is no such campaign to leave the euro—an...
Damian Collins | 539 c436 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a good point and I am sure that citizens in Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spa...
Damian Collins | 539 c439 (Link to this contribution) The point I was making was that the markets will make the decision for the European Council members ...
Denis MacShane | 539 c439 (Link to this contribution) I am very happy to hear the hon. Gentleman gloss over his speech, but that is the point I was making...
Lord Redwood | 539 c439 (Link to this contribution) Does not the hon. Gentleman understand that the markets that feed and clothe him are the people? The...
Speaker | 539 c430 (Link to this contribution) I remind the House that there is a time limit on Back-Bench speeches, which is subject to review.
Natascha Engel | 539 c430 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House has considered the matter of the European Council." I would like to ...
Speaker | 539 c430 (Link to this contribution) I apologise: I ought to have explained that the time limit on Back-Bench speeches is eight minutes.
William Cash | 539 c430 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee and its Chairman for arranging this debate. I am s...
Martin Horwood | 539 c430-1 (Link to this contribution) In the light of the hon. Gentleman's attack on the role of the Liberal Democrats in all this, would ...
William Cash | 539 c431 (Link to this contribution) We are all in favour of growth, but unfortunately the European treaties themselves work against that...
Kelvin Hopkins | 539 c431 (Link to this contribution) Emphasis is constantly placed on our trade with the European Union, but it is not always pointed out...
William Cash | 539 c431-3 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. In 2009 there was a trade deficit of £14 billion in goods and services, but since then it ha...
Lord Redwood | 539 c446-8 (Link to this contribution) I have no more injury time available, so I need to develop my argument rapidly. If those countries ...
Speaker | 539 c449 (Link to this contribution) Before calling the next speaker, let me say that, ideally, I will call the first Front-Bench speaker...
Keith Vaz | 539 c448 (Link to this contribution) It is always a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood) who, in his 25 ye...
Bernard Jenkin | 539 c449 (Link to this contribution) This debate is being conducted between some right hon. and hon. Members with an extraordinary air of...
Edward Leigh | 539 c449 (Link to this contribution) Is it in our interests that the other countries succeed in creating fiscal and monetary union? We wi...
Bernard Jenkin | 539 c449-50 (Link to this contribution) I do not subscribe to the view that British foreign policy should be constantly to try to divide and...
Emma Reynolds | 539 c450 (Link to this contribution) The debate comes at a crucial time for the eurozone and the wider European Union. Last month's Europ...
Martin Horwood | 539 c450 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady makes some of the points that I made several months ago and that other hon. Members sy...
Emma Reynolds | 539 c451 (Link to this contribution) The process of re-engagement might be under way, but the Prime Minister's decision to walk out of a ...
Denis MacShane | 539 c451 (Link to this contribution) May I pray in aid the Deputy Prime Minister, who said that the Conservative party in the European Pa...
Emma Reynolds | 539 c451-2 (Link to this contribution) As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the Opposition voted against the IMF contribution last time. I th...
Lord Redwood | 539 c451 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Lady bring us up to date with Labour's thinking on any vote that we might face in this...
Emma Reynolds | 539 c451 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a valid point. If the Prime Minister had not pulled his MEPs from the mai...
Robert Buckland | 539 c454 (Link to this contribution) On the point of improved opportunities for the single market, will my hon. Friend ensure that the Go...
Alistair Burt | 539 c455 (Link to this contribution) I have only three minutes remaining, but I will take one further intervention, because my hon. Frien...
William Cash | 539 c455 (Link to this contribution) Did the Prime Minister agree with Angela Merkel when she said:"““We will have to get used to the fac...
Alistair Burt | 539 c454-5 (Link to this contribution) I can make no stronger a case for Honda in Swindon than my hon. Friend has made. He is absolutely ri...
Alistair Burt | 539 c455-6 (Link to this contribution) Alas, I have not had the opportunity to test that quote with my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister...
Emma Reynolds | 539 c452 (Link to this contribution) I will in a minute. The task of Monday's European Council is both urgent and long term—urgent in th...
Emma Reynolds | 539 c452 (Link to this contribution) When the Minister replies, will he clarify one issue? The Deputy Prime Minister has been organising ...
Emma Reynolds | 539 c452-3 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is frustrated, but he will understand that because interventions eat into my time...
Alistair Burt | 539 c453 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Member for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds) for her remarks and all colleag...
Edward Leigh | 539 c453 (Link to this contribution) It is fantastic that my hon. Friend is here and we greatly respect him, but will he take back to the...
Alistair Burt | 539 c453 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for his generous remarks. As he knows, occasionally colleagues cannot be wher...
Alistair Burt | 539 c453-4 (Link to this contribution) No, because I might take another intervention on something else. Time is limited and I cannot do jus...
Speaker | 539 c441 (Link to this contribution) Order. We are in a very serious position with a lot of Members wishing to speak. I am going to have ...
Gareth Thomas | 539 c433 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I apologise for interrupting the debate, but my attention has been ...
Subjects
EU countries Economic situation Economic and monetary union UK membership of EU European Council
Link
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