argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): Anybody would have thought that the right hon. Lady was nervous about facing me across the Dispatch Box again The right hon. Lady started by questioning my credentials to be here. Since I have Cabinet responsibility for constitutional affairs, including the implementation of devolution throughout the United Kingdom, and since I also chair the Cabinet Committee on the domestic implementation of our Brexit arrangements, it seems to me to be perfectly reasonable that I should respond to the right hon. Lady’s urgent question The right hon. Lady asked about the position of my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary. Like every other member of the Cabinet, he stands four-square behind our support for the Belfast agreement and the December agreements reached between the United Kingdom and the European Union. We are now at the very start of a negotiating period during which we will discuss with our partners in the EU how to give practical effect to the commitments that were entered into then, both to ensure there is no hard north-south border between the Northern Ireland and Ireland and to ensure there is no kind of border, customs or otherwise, between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach have both said publicly that they believe the priority is to settle these issues in the context of the ambitious, deep and special partnership that we are seeking between the UK and the EU in the future, and my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will set out more detail about her proposed approach to this in her speech on Friday.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Kenneth Clarke (Conservative, Centre-right): We have just heard the Prime Minister reconfirm her commitment to full regulatory convergence if necessary to keep the Irish border open, but I did not wholly understand the second half of her reply to me. Does my right hon. Friend really believe it will be possible to negotiate a position whereby the British Government decide what regulatory convergence they are going to have, the British Government decide what regulatory convergence they are not going to have, and the British Government are free to change their mind and move those boundaries at any time? What does my right hon. Friend think the prospects are of agreeing that with 27 other sovereign Governments?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): With respect to my right hon. and learned Friend, I do not think that there is a need for any misunderstanding about what my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister was saying. On the date when we leave the European Union, the treaties will, in the words of article 50, cease to apply to the United Kingdom. The effect of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, which is currently before the House of Lords, is that the direct effect and primacy of European Union law in the United Kingdom will be extinguished. We are now seeking an agreement, which will take the form of a treaty governed by international law, between the United Kingdom and the continuing entity of the European Union. That is what we are seeking to do, and the Prime Minister has said that she will talk about that in more detail on Friday.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I have not had the pleasure of reading that particular report from the European Parliament yet, but I shall certainly add it to my reading list. What my right hon. Friend has just said is evidence that there are people here, as well as in the Brussels institutions and the 27 national Governments of our EU partners, who are keen to work constructively together to find an outcome that brings benefits to us all.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I draw the right hon. Gentleman’s attention to the fact that last December’s joint report contains three options to ensure that there will be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The first—which the Government of Ireland and this Government are strongly committed to and want to see as the option that we are able to deliver—is the one that settles this matter in the context of the overall future economic partnership between the UK and the European Union. We are looking forward to beginning the negotiating process that I hope will start after the publication today.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat (Conservative, Centre-right): We are coming up to the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement—an agreement that allowed the people of this nation, wherever they live in these islands, to have their own identity and yet be citizens of the United Kingdom. That agreement also locked in three conditions. The first was that the agreement could change only with the agreement of the citizens of Northern Ireland. The second was that Dublin would have to agree to a change, and the third was that the United Kingdom would have to agree. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that agreement must not be undermined, and that those who voted against it in the past should hang their heads in shame, because it is an agreement that has kept the peace for 20 years?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I am certainly proud of what the Belfast agreement has achieved in making possible a period of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. None of us would claim that that process was complete yet, but the Belfast agreement was an historic start that was attributed to the hard work of successive Governments under John Major and Tony Blair. I am happy to pay tribute to both of them for that. The Government are four-square behind the Belfast agreement, and my hon. Friend made an important point in talking about the principle of consent. The principle of consent, including over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, was also written into the joint report and signed up to not just by the UK Government but by the European Union as well.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome what the right hon. Gentleman has said. Yes, there is of course a jurisdictional border that gives rise to tax and other differences, but they are currently managed in a way that allows people to go about their lives on either side of that jurisdictional border without any hindrance or delay whatever. This Government and the Irish Government are determined to try to ensure that that state of affairs continues, while also respecting the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Damian Howard Green (Conservative, Centre-right): Of all the areas of the Brexit negotiations that give rise to high emotion, perhaps the one that most needs to be treated calmly, rationally and unemotionally is the question of the Irish border. Can my right hon. Friend assure me that the UK Government and their negotiators will continue to deal with this issue in that calm, rational way? In doing that, could they perhaps persuade the Commission’s negotiating side to concentrate not just on one area of the December joint report but on all three areas that were originally put forward by the British Government?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): I support everything that has been said by my right hon. Friend and the comments of my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green). The country has to wake up and realise that we are not going to tear our nation further apart. We need an approach to Brexit that is not only pragmatic but honest. The only solution to a hard border is membership of the customs union and the single market, and we will get there in the end Does my right hon. Friend share my concern about a democratic deficit? We know that 56% of people in Northern Ireland voted remain—I wonder why. In the absence of an Executive, and given the composition of the right hon. and hon. Members who sit in this place to represent Northern Ireland, where is the voice of the 56% in all this?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Government Operations
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): It is the Government’s hope that the political parties in Northern Ireland can agree to reconstitute the Executive and the Assembly as soon as possible. I think there is agreement across the political parties in Northern Ireland that that is what they would want to do, and I hope that the remaining differences can be overcome.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not think that I could be clearer than I have been so far. The Government are absolutely resolved to stand by both the Belfast agreement and all parts of the joint report of last December.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Bernard Christison Jenkin (Conservative, Centre-right): I am encouraged that everybody seems to want to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland. The only people who seem to be threatening such a border are those who are trying to leverage their political advantage in domestic politics in the Republic of Ireland or trying somehow to blackmail the whole of the United Kingdom into substantially reversing the substance of the referendum result. Far more constituencies voted leave than remain, and it would be as politically unsustainable for issues around Northern Ireland to leverage the whole of the United Kingdom back into some kind of customs unions as it would be to erect any wholly unnecessary infrastructure at the border in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): We are at the very start of the negotiations about the detail of the withdrawal agreement and then of the creation of the future deep and special partnership that we are seeking with our European Union friends and neighbours. The depth and comprehensive nature of the economic partnership that we are seeking is something that the Prime Minister will talk about on Friday.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The Irish Government, like the rest of the EU, signed up to and support the joint report of last December in its entirety, and paragraph 42 of the report commits both parties—the UK and the EU—to uphold the "totality" of the relationships embodied in and expressed by the Belfast agreement. That totality embraces east-west every bit as much as north-south.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid that that is not a question that I can readily answer. However, it is important that the Commission recognises, as the Prime Minister said earlier, that as far as the Government are concerned, whichever side those of us around the Cabinet table voted or campaigned for during the EU referendum, our commitment to the Union of the United Kingdom is absolute. There is no division whatsoever on that matter, and I hope that our negotiating partners understand that.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): We are certainly seeking no hard border and, helpfully, the Government of Ireland are also committed to that objective. Having served six years as Minister for Europe, I am used to trying to resist provocation, wherever it comes from.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): What we have today is something that Monsieur Barnier has described as not necessarily the final version, because this is a draft that the Commission is tabling not for negotiation, but for discussion among the EU27 member states and the European Parliament. When the text comes to the table for negotiation, we will obviously consider that option. As the Prime Minister said earlier, it is important that there is not cherry-picking, and that the text of the withdrawal agreement, when it is eventually concluded, reflects all the paragraphs of the joint report equally. My feeling, from the brief reading I have had so far, is that the current draft does not do that.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
James Peter Brokenshire (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome what my right hon. Friend has said in pointing back to the joint report from just before Christmas, which underlined the commitment of the UK and the EU both to the Belfast Good Friday agreement and to the constitutional settlement of the UK. In that regard, will he confirm that the joint report highlighted that primarily, we need to focus on dealing with the Northern Ireland border through the broader negotiations, and will he encourage colleagues to focus on the August report that the Government published, which set out in detail how we should do that?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
Laurence Anthony Robertson (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that the European Union continues to put the cart before the horse on this aspect? Surely we cannot know with any degree of certainty what arrangements will be needed on the Irish border, if any at all, until we know what kind of trade agreement we are going to strike.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an important point. That is precisely why not just the Prime Minister but the Taoiseach believe that by far the best option is to settle the issue of the border in the context of the overall economic partnership between ourselves and the European Union.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): This is exactly the point that I made in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson): the right way forward is to resolve these matters in the context of the broader negotiation about the future economic partnership.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt (Conservative, Centre-right): It is rightly the determination of the Government to deliver the current effectively open border, with the qualifications that were given by the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Nigel Dodds). Surely all the people of the island of Ireland have the right for that same practical determination to be shared by the EU27, without it being taken hostage by conditions that would, in effect, override the sovereign decision of the British people to leave the European Union—an agenda that is rather transparently on display today.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
Nigel Martin Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): Would it not be more sensible and logical if Michel Barnier focused more on the trade arrangements between the United Kingdom and the European Union, where the EU has a £70 billion surplus with the United Kingdom, rather than on just one part of the United Kingdom? If we only did that, we might obviate the need to focus on one part of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The trade surplus that the EU27 enjoy with the United Kingdom, particularly in trade in goods, is just one more compelling reason why it is to our mutual advantage to negotiate a future economic partnership that allows trade to be as frictionless as possible.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I wonder whether my right hon. Friend has pointed out to the Irish Government that the biggest loser if there is not a sensible agreement and tariffs are imposed on Irish goods coming into the United Kingdom will be the Irish economy. There would be huge devastation to the Irish agricultural economy in particular. I wonder whether he has suggested to the Irish Prime Minister the question of whether he is willing to sacrifice the interests of the Irish economy on the high altar of European political integration.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The economies of Ireland and the United Kingdom are indeed intertwined, but I reassure my hon. Friend that the Irish Government and the Taoiseach are committed to trying to resolve these matters through option A, as set out in the joint report—namely, through the means of an overall economic agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): The interventions by the official Opposition Front-Bench team throughout this week have been more about political opportunism than about principle. The way forward is to take forward the negotiations that will shortly commence in a calm, pragmatic spirit.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): Given that goods and services are routinely traded across land borders elsewhere in the EU, is it not possible that the political will to achieve the desired outcome is all that is needed? Will my right hon. Friend ensure that we do not sign up to what the EU dictates now but look at the creative solution that has been used elsewhere in EU borders?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Michael John Ogilvie Graham (Conservative, Centre-right): The European Union approach to sequencing these negotiations means that the Commission at the moment has a mandate to negotiate only the implementation phase, so these issues cannot be dealt with until after the end of March. Does my right hon. Friend agree that during this period the guiding star for us all has to be the fact that the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and the EU are all agreed that there will be no hard or physical border? Does he also agree that this debate is more about the shadow Foreign Secretary’s continued spat with our Foreign Secretary than anything else?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): I have sometimes felt that the hon. Lady’s party would be happy with a hard border between Scotland and England. I do not want her or anyone in the House to be under any misapprehension about this: the Government are absolutely committed to what they agreed in the joint report. Ever since the referendum, we have made it clear that we are not going to support a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
Henry Edward Millar Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend confirm that trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain is far greater in volume than that between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, between Northern Ireland and the European Union and between Northern Ireland and the rest of the world?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): Not only is that true, but trade between Ireland and Great Britain is more important than trade from south to north—between Ireland and Northern Ireland. That reinforces the point that it is in the mutual interests of all parties to agree on an ambitious economic partnership for the future.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): Those items were also mentioned in the Government’s position paper that was published last summer about the Irish border. I am not saying that those will necessarily provide a comprehensive solution, but that is evidence of our good will in seeking pragmatic, constructive ways forward.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): When Ministers have private conversations or private correspondence, they engage in all sorts of speculative thinking to test out ideas before they are brought for collective discussion and decision. The Government collectively are accountable to this House for the policies they have adopted. The Government have ruled out both a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and a border in the Irish sea.
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): How dare the EU propose the break-up of the United Kingdom into two separate trading zones? Some 61% of my constituents voted to leave, but both leavers and remainers are increasingly angered by the stroppy, petulant and unreasonable approach to these negotiations taken by the EU. Will my right hon. Friend tell the EU that it has not got off to a very good start in these negotiations?
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Border Arrangements — House of Commons, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
David Roy Lidington (Conservative, Centre-right): What we learned at the end of 2017 was that despite all the predications about the imminent collapse of the negotiating process at that time, with political will, both from London and from our 27 partners and the European Commission, an agreement could be reached. That provides a good basis on which to move further forward now.