argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): I start by apologising for my voice. Once again, I have acquired the single European cough, but I hope that it will pass Negotiations regarding our exit from the European Union are ongoing as we speak. Indeed, we are in the middle of an ongoing round. As such, I have to be a bit more circumspect than usual. We held further talks in Brussels over the past few days and progress has been made, but we have not yet reached a final conclusion. However, I believe that we are now close to concluding the first phase of the negotiations and moving on to talk about our future trade relations. There is much common understanding, and both sides agree that we must move forward together Our aims in this negotiation remain as they have always been. In particular, on the issue of Northern Ireland and Ireland, we have been clear that we want to protect all elements of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement to maintain the common travel area and to protect associated rights. We want to ensure that there is no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. We recognise that, as we exit, we must respect the integrity of the EU single market and the customs union, but we are equally clear that we must respect the integrity of the United Kingdom There remain some final issues to resolve that require further negotiation and consultation over the coming days. Our officials are in continuous contact, and we expect to reconvene in Brussels later this week for further negotiations. I or the Prime Minister will formally update Parliament once this round of negotiations concludes, as I have done for every round so far. As was made clear by the comments from President Juncker and President Tusk yesterday, all parties remain confident of reaching a positive conclusion in the course of the week.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): Given my voice, I will wait it out, Mr Speaker Let us start with this issue of the single market and customs union. I am glad to see the shadow Chancellor in the Chamber, because he said earlier this year that remaining in the single market would be interpreted as "not respecting" the referendum result. The shadow International Trade Secretary—I cannot see him here—said that a permanent customs union is "deeply unattractive". He said that as a "transitional phase", it "might be thought to have some merit. However, as an end point it is deeply unattractive." In fact, he described it rather later as "a disaster". So much for Labour policy on this matter; we can see why it has changed 10 times in the course of the last year On the question with respect to the United Kingdom, I said in my response to the urgent question that I would be circumspect, and I intend to be. I am not going to go in for tit-for-tat comments—that would be very bad for our negotiations—but I will take the opportunity to rebut one falsehood I saw being stirred up by various of our political opponents yesterday: the suggestion that we might depart the European Union but leave one part of the United Kingdom behind, still inside the single market and customs union. That is emphatically not something that the UK Government are considering. So when the First Minister of Wales complains about it, the First Minister of Scotland says it is a reason to start banging the tattered drum of independence, or the Mayor of London says it justifies a hard border around the M25, I say they are making a foolish mistake. No UK Government would allow such a thing, let alone a Conservative and Unionist one.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
William Nigel Paul Cash (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend appreciate that, whether it is in relation to regulatory alignment in Northern Ireland, or in relation to citizens’ rights in respect of these negotiations, there is a serious danger that the European Court of Justice will get itself into every nook and cranny? There is no way in which it can be contained under article 344 of the treaty or, for that matter, in relation to the interpretation of all the matters I have just referred to.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Labor
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): I will answer very briefly. First, I am very surprised by the hon. Gentleman, of all people, being so dismissive of small nations. Secondly, the Scottish Government document to which he refers was read carefully, and many of its elements are consistent with our negotiating strategy, not least the aim of protecting employment rights. I really think he should recognise that.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Owen William Paterson (Conservative, Centre-right): The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency states that only 5% of Northern Ireland’s sales cross the border south and only 1.6% of the Republic’s exports go north. The Government paper, confirmed by the head of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, says that that is easily surmountable without a hard border. The Belfast agreement confirmed Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom with standard regulation throughout. We are going to leave the single market and the customs union. Will the Secretary of State confirm that this week the integrity of the United Kingdom comes first, and that, if necessary, no deal is better than a bad deal?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend makes his point well. I have already confirmed that the integrity of the United Kingdom comes first. That is why we have adopted the strategy of saying that the issue of maintaining a free border—an open border; a frictionless border—is best dealt with in the next phase: phase 2. Indeed, that is not just my view, but the view of the Taoiseach, who said on 20 August: "I think the suggestion that" has been made "to a certain extent, is common sense. If we are able to have a trade agreement between the EU and UK then of course it will be much easier to sort out issues around any border between Ireland and Northern Ireland." I have suddenly realised that the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) has also said the same thing: "To be fair to David Davis, he is right on issues like Northern Ireland. There is only so far you can get before you move to the next phase."
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid that, uncharacteristically, the right hon. Gentleman is just wrong about that. I just read out the comment from the Taoiseach in August and a comment from his own Front-Bench spokesman about this subject, and I have set out the views of other Labour Front Benchers who are completely dismissive of being in the customs union in the long run. They are right, I am afraid, in this respect.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): The British people are fed up to the back teeth with all this. They want a solution. It might be that regulatory alignment is the solution, but if it is good enough for Northern Ireland, it is good enough for the rest of the country. We are a Union, and we will not allow a deal for one part of our great Union and not for the other. May I gently say to the Secretary of State that there is a consensus in this place? Even though, when we had a debate on a motion, Labour Front Benchers, including the shadow Chancellor, voted against the customs union, we are—over here, over there and down there—as one. There is a solution. I do not care how we wrap it up in whatever fancy words, but if it conveys the effect on British business of the single market and the customs union, let us grab it, seize it, rub out the red lines, move on, work together, build a consensus, and get a deal for our nation.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend makes her case with her characteristic tenacity. She can have this as a guarantee from me: we will not be treating any part of the United Kingdom differently from any other part.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend share my sense of gratitude to our friends in the Democratic Unionist party who have helped Her Majesty’s Government to stick to their own policy in these negotiations? Is it not essential that the red lines on maintaining the United Kingdom, and on regulatory divergence whence the benefits of leaving come, are indelible red lines?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): As ever, the hon. Gentleman asks an intelligent question, and I will answer it as clearly as I can. He said that we are making a choice. We are, and it is based not on any one party, but on 17.5 million votes that were cast to leave the European Union.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
John Charles Baron (Conservative, Centre-right): The Secretary of State is absolutely right to remind the House that the only way of respecting the result of the referendum is by leaving the customs union and single market, which are part and parcel of the EU. Does he accept that in any negotiation there will be ups and downs, and that we should remember that both sides in this negotiation have agreed to the principle that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right, and that was part of the text that we discussed yesterday. Of course there will be ups and downs and pressure points—that is what negotiations are like. I have to tell the House that yesterday it was not London but Brussels that forecast an instant outcome. We had said that Monday’s discussion was a "staging post", and we want to get to the outcome by 15 December—full stop.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): I think I said to my hon. Friend when he was Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee that we had a great deal of contingency planning under way to deal with all options, from the option we are seeking—the free trade agreement—right down to the option we are not seeking, which is no agreement. That is the whole range, and we are looking at and planning for all those outcomes. More than 150 projects are already under way, and there will be more.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Eddisbury (Antoinette Sandbach), yes, but using things such as the mutual recognition and alignment of standards. That does not mean having the same standards; it means having ones that give similar results.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is absolutely on the nail, although what he said clearly did not go down very well with the luddite tendency in the Opposition. The other thing that is required is for us to get on to the second phase and talk about a free trade agreement, which will do more than anything else to facilitate this.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): We have talked at great length about what we mean by regulatory alignment—I have just done so today. It is not harmonisation, being in the single market, or having exactly the same rules; it is this House exercising its democratic right to choose our own laws in such a way as to maximise our ability to sell abroad. That is how it will work.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Hugo Swire (Conservative, Centre-right): Is it worth gently reminding the Taoiseach and the Government in Dublin how we behaved when they were in financial trouble and we helped bail them out? Is it also worth gently reminding them that, post Brexit, Irish nationals will continue to have the right to live and work in the UK? Finally, is it not worth gently reminding them that the UK is the most important economy to the Republic of Ireland? We wish to be good and productive neighbours, and they should enter into these negotiations with that long-term view in mind.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): I say to the hon. Lady what I said at the beginning of this urgent question: all these stories put about by her Labour party co-members yesterday were just nonsense. The Conservative and Unionist party puts the integrity of the United Kingdom at the forefront of its aims.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that, as with the Ashes test match, the week is not yet over? It is in the interests of Ireland as well as the UK to avoid a no-deal Brexit and find the long-term strategic partnership, and therefore all parties need to keep talking.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend, who has a long and distinguished record in the European Parliament and knows the institutions there as well as anybody, brings great wisdom and insight to this discussion, and she is of course absolutely right.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Andrew John Stevenson (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Minister reassure me that when it comes to negotiations with the EU, the Government will pursue a flexible policy that includes the possibility of establishing a model similar to that of Norway or Switzerland, which would undoubtedly benefit the Irish issue?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): No, the Prime Minister has made it clear that we are not going to take any off-the-shelf model. We are a very large country in European terms, and we have very great trade reach—and very great reach in other respects—so we will choose a model that is appropriate to us.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): Did you notice, Mr Speaker, that the shadow Minister, just at the end of his question, committed the Labour party to dropping 29 March 2019 as the date on which we come out of the European Union? Will the Secretary of State confirm that it is the Government’s policy that we are definitely coming out by 29 March 2019?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Paul Masterton (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that if regulatory alignment in certain specific areas is a requirement to solve the Northern Ireland border issue, then protecting the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom requires that solution to be adopted UK wide?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): A comprehensive free trade agreement, a customs agreement and all the associated regulatory alignment. While I am on my feet, let me pick the hon. Gentleman up on his comment about the result of the general election. I remind him that 85% of Members of this House were elected on manifestos that said we should leave the European Union.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): The aim of the negotiation is together to get to an outcome that serves our interests, the EU27’s interests and particularly Ireland’s interests because, as my hon. Friend says, they are our good friends and the people who, in some ways, are closest to us.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
James Roger Cartlidge (Conservative, Centre-right): The EU Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, has today tweeted that when we leave, our existing free trade agreements will not be rolled over. That is obviously a significant point, so further to the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (John Stevenson), does that not add weight at least to considering those trade models whereby we can negotiate our own trade deals globally, but remain part of those that the European Free Trade Association currently has?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): There is more than one benefit to departing from the European Union. One is trade arrangements, and we are well advanced in our plans for dealing with those ongoing trade arrangements and ensuring that we do roll them over.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Government Operations
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): In response to the first half of the hon. Gentleman’s question, I recommend that he read Hansard for my statements here, which will prove that he is absolutely wrong. It is really quite a calumny As for the First Ministers, there is a body called the Joint Ministerial Committee, which includes representatives of all the devolved Administrations and meets regularly. Sadly, the Northern Ireland Executive are not there at the moment, which is one of the difficulties we have to deal with.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (Conservative, Centre-right): We leave the EU in 16 months. Will my right hon. Friend assure the House and the country that the EU delegates are well aware that we are preparing to fall back on World Trade Organisation rules if negotiations fail?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): One of the big prizes to be gained from being free of the European Union is enabling us, as a United Kingdom, to negotiate our own free trade deals across the world. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that nothing in these agreements will fetter our ability to do that?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): It was said earlier that nobody voted for that; nobody knew that that was a consequence. In fact, both sides in the referendum campaign made it plain that departure from the European Union meant departure from the customs union.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): Given that in European negotiations nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, does the Secretary of State agree that any concessions that we may now make are contingent on reaching a satisfactory end state free trade deal in future?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
Michael Jon Wood (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Secretary of State confirm that, in the negotiations, the Government still aim to conclude an agreement on an implementation phase as early as possible in the new year and that that agreement would similarly benefit the European Union?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): Let us start with the hon. Lady’s opening comments. She said that I did not mention the Northern Ireland agreement. I will read the paragraph from my opening statement: "In particular, on the issue of Northern Ireland and Ireland, we have been clear that we want to protect all elements of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement to maintain the common travel area and the protected associated rights." So much for that. [Interruption.]
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Michael James Tomlinson-Mynors (Conservative, Centre-right): Despite the noise from many Opposition Members, is not it right that, at this stage of the talks, we are closer to an agreement than we have ever been, that that is a good thing—progress has been made—and that we should want to move on to talks about trade, which will be in our national interest and also in the EU’s interest?
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): The aim for the whole country, as the hon. Lady says, is to maximise the trade benefits of being outside the customs union and the single market, while maintaining as much as possible the benefits we currently enjoy. That is the aim and that is what we are heading towards. I am pretty confident that that is what we will achieve.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): Is Horlicks a parliamentary word, Mr Speaker? I might use it in future. I am the Brexit Secretary, so that is of course what I focus on most of the time. The simple fact is that the free trade agreement the hon. Lady talks about is precisely what we are aiming for. It is exactly where we and Brussels want to get to as quickly as possible.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course the referendum question was a short question, but it was a very long campaign. In that campaign, both sides made it plain that being outside the union meant being outside the customs union and outside the single market. Both sides made that plain and, if need be, I can point the right hon. Gentleman to the television programmes on which that was said. I have explained to the House that regulatory alignment is not harmonisation. It is a question of ensuring similar outcomes in areas where we want to have trade relationships and free and frictionless trade. Anything we agree for Northern Ireland in that respect, if we get our free trade area, will apply to the whole country.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said, I am not going to go in for any tit-for-tat with other Governments. What I will say is that the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the best outcome for Ireland is a free trade deal and a customs agreement. That will preserve by far and away the largest portion of its trade and protect its economy. That is what we are trying to do.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: International Affairs
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): First, the hon. Gentleman does not need to point out to a member of the Conservative and Unionist party the importance of the United Kingdom. Secondly, the Union does not require membership of the single market. As far as I remember, the United Kingdom existed well before we were a member of the single market.
EU Exit Negotiations — House of Commons, 2017-12-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Davis (Conservative, Centre-right): First, we have made a lot of progress. The question this week is sufficient progress—on that, by the way, I am quoting Jean-Claude Juncker again. On the hon. Gentleman’s substantive question, we would expect the free trade agreement to include the services sector.