argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): The democratic consent process does not remove the border down the Irish sea; it simply moves the risk from determining the future of the border from Westminster to Stormont. So why does the Prime Minister believe that the deal will accord with the consensus built into the Good Friday agreement?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Catharine Letitia Hoey (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister has said clearly that he wants a free trade deal by the end of 2020 for the whole of the United Kingdom. Will the Prime Minister tell us clearly that when that day comes, the protocol on Northern Ireland will be automatically changed, and that Northern Ireland will then be fully part of a free trade deal, with everything there being the same as in the rest of the United Kingdom?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): Forty years ago I heard a Conservative leader speak, and although I disagreed with much of what she believed in, I believed in her loyalty, I trusted her, and she brought the nation together with a great speech. I did not hear that this morning. What I heard was a man who leads this country but who people do not trust. He keeps saying, "Trust". Who will trust the British people? If we want the British people to trust us, does he agree that we should have a referendum so that people can judge this deal for what it is? We can then have a general election after that.
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. While addressing the Democratic Unionist party conference in Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister promised that there would be no border down the Irish sea, whether customs, regulatory or any other sort. He promised the same thing to his Conservative colleagues during his pursuit of power to become the jungle king. Would the Prime Minister like to take this opportunity to formally apologise to the DUP, his Conservative colleagues and the good people of Northern Ireland for having sold them down the river and for having broken yet another promise?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Labor
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): At any point in the past three years, the Government could have agreed to internationally binding legal commitments to maintain existing workers’ rights and environmental protections and ensure that rights keep pace in the future. At every stage, they have refused to do so. Can the Prime Minister explain why people across this country should believe his empty promises now? If he is so confident that the British public will not see through his hollow rhetoric, why is he so afraid of giving them a final say?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Prime Minister understand the worries of manufacturers about new rules of origin checks and other red tape that his deal would impose on them, and the fears of Make UK that reassurances in the deal negotiated by his predecessor have been dropped from his deal?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
David George Hanson (Labour, Centre-left): North Wales is a major artery to Northern Ireland by road and by boat, and to the Irish Republic by road and by boat, but also to the Irish Republic through Northern Ireland by road and by boat. Given what the Prime Minister has said today—there will be no tariffs on goods "unless they are at risk of entering the EU"; that is in his statement—where and when will the border checks be, and where and when will there be tariffs, because people will face them under his proposals?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Seema Malhotra-Saluja (Labour, Centre-left): Yesterday, the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) said: "I am doing my best to persuade colleagues…who, like me, voted three times against Theresa May’s deal, to look at this in a favourable light…provided we can get that clear assurance, and I have been given it so far by people like Michael Gove and Dominic Raab…that…if those trade talks fail up to December 2020, we will be leaving on no-deal terms." Have members of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet given those assurances? If, indeed, no deal is therefore not ruled out by supporting the Prime Minister today, why will he not tell the country the truth?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State pointed out that some hon. Members have voted against a Brexit deal since the referendum, including the Prime Minister, who did so twice. Why do the Government not have the courage, therefore, to allow the same privilege to the people of this country by allowing them to make their judgment on this deal?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Catharine Letitia Hoey (Labour, Centre-left): The right hon. Gentleman will know that many of us have long campaigned to leave the European Union. Will he tell me now why this agreement does not give an opportunity for the people of Northern Ireland to opt in and consent to what has been decided? That would have made a crucial difference to people on the pro-Union side in Northern Ireland who, like me, genuinely feel that, somehow, the United Kingdom Government are letting them down and giving in to others.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Government Operations
Gareth Craig Snell (Labour, Centre-left): Should the House divide later on the amendment tabled by the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin), the amendment will have my support. I suggest to the Secretary of State that there is a way through that brings the consensus he talks about: we support the amendment and the Government table the legislation next week so that we can scrutinise the detail. We can then make meaningful decisions on Second and Third Reading, but, crucially, those of us who have some reservations about the Government’s trustworthiness can see the commitments that the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister have made from the Dispatch Box, which I welcome, written on the face of the Bill before we make that final, crucial decision on how we continue the process.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Jonathan Neil Reynolds (Labour, Centre-left): Surely the crucial point of this new deal is that it offers Great Britain a fairly hard Brexit in order to facilitate trade agreements with countries for which European standards are incompatible. An economy cannot be a European-style economy and a US-style economy at the same time. The Secretary of State is not giving us an economic assessment to tell us what jobs and industries will grow on the back of this deal and what goods and services will be cheaper to compensate for loss of aerospace, automotive, financial services and so much more. He cannot tell us that today.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Secretary of State agree that amendment (a) is a panic measure by the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin) and others, because they had no idea or confidence that a deal would be before us today that would allow those of us in this House who want to secure a deal to move on and leave the European Union by 31 October? As a result, if the House votes for amendment (a) today, we will be forced—even if a deal is approved—to seek an extension until 31 January, underlining that the sponsors of Benn Act had only one motivation: to delay Brexit and stop it.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Anna Catherine Turley (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would be grateful for your advice. I was shocked to hear the Secretary of State mention the name of Mo Mowlam in his introductory remarks. Mo Mowlam said that the EU contributed to the Northern Ireland peace process and that it was crucial in underpinning dialogue and cross-community contacts. She emphasised the precariousness of the process and the need for continued "substantial" support from the European Union. May I seek your advice, Mr Speaker, on how we can seek to defend her legacy when it is abused in such a way?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): Today, we meet on a Saturday for the first time in 37 years, with huge decisions before us this afternoon. Those decisions are not just about whether this deal gets over the line, and getting Brexit done, but about what it means for our country. There has been a lot of attention on how the deal operates in Northern Ireland, and rightly so, but that should not be allowed to mask the political project that is driving this deal. That is why Labour has focused on the political declaration, and any examination of the detail of that political declaration reveals its true purpose and the intent of the deal No customs union—that strikes at the heart of our manufacturing sector. Once in the doldrums, decimated by Prime Minister Thatcher—[Interruption.] Mr Speaker, my dad was a toolmaker. He worked in a factory all his life in manufacturing, and we lived through those doldrums. That is why when I go to a factory or plant I am proud, for myself and for my father, when I see manufacturing through the just-in-time process and the revival that has gone on in parts of manufacturing. Go to any of those manufacturing plants, and the management and unions speak with one voice: "Do not take us out of the customs union." This deal does just that, and it will do huge damage to manufacturing What of services? Nothing in this deal is different from that of the previous Prime Minister—the weakest of weak deals for services, which make up 80% of our economy. What the deal does is clear: it rips up our close trading relationship with the EU, and the price will be paid in damage to our economy and in job losses. Anyone doubting that should look at the words that have been stripped out of the deal put forward by the previous Prime Minister. Put the text side by side and ask some difficult questions Paragraph 20 used to read: "The Parties envisage having a trading relationship on goods that is as close as possible, with a view to facilitating the ease of legitimate trade." The words "as close as possible" have been stripped out. Why Now it is said that we want "as close as possible". Now it is said that there are all sorts of assurances, but between the text as it was under the previous Prime Minister and the text before us today, the words "a trading relationship on goods that is as close as possible" have been taken out and that is not an accident.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
James Richard Frith (Labour, Centre-left): At the heart of this is the question of destination: not an abstract of moving on today, but the impact of a deal on everyday life in towns like mine. The Government should stop selling this sell-out deal to us as if this is the decision today. For all the talk of a deal of Norway plus and Canada plus plus, the Government are presenting us with Britain minus: minus protections, minus opportunities, minus prospects. If the Government are confident in the deal, they should put it to a final say. Now the deal is through the gate and people know more than they did, they should have a say on whether this is what they want. Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that a final say is the only way through this mess?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I do agree, but I really want to press this point. As I say, this is not just about getting a deal over the line. That is not the end of it. It is what we are getting over the line and what it means for our country. I invite the Secretary of State to intervene on me. Why were the words "as close as possible" taken out of the text? If the Government’s aspiration is to be as close as possible, why take the words out? [Interruption.] Nothing Let us again go through the exercise of laying the two texts alongside each other. The words about alignment are all but gone. A deliberate decision has been taken to take out the aspiration of a trading relationship that is as close as possible and a deliberate decision has been taken to take out all the words about alignment. That is not an accident. That is not a typo. That is a deeply political decision that tells us everything about the direction of travel under this deal.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Labor
Lilian Rachel Greenwood (Labour, Centre-left): Does that not go precisely to the heart of why those of us on the Labour Benches will not be able to vote for this deal? We are hearing from our colleagues in the trade union movement, who represent millions of workers including those who work in manufacturing, that this deal will be damaging for the future of jobs and livelihoods. How can we trust the Tories on workers’ rights when, throughout the whole time I was a trade union officer and throughout the whole time I have been a Member of Parliament, this Government have reduced working people’s rights?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): That is just utter nonsense. Let me answer that directly: I have stood at this Dispatch Box and pressed amendments on the customs union time and again, and Government Members have voted against them. We have put forward the basis for a deal and we voted for it on the Opposition side of the House, so that intervention is just nonsense It is obvious where this ends: either with an FTA that significantly weakens rights, standards and protections, or in no deal and WTO terms at the end of the transition.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend for focusing attention on manufacturing. Is it his assessment that this deal would lead to new rules of origin checks and other red tape on UK manufacturers exporting to the EU?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): Yes, and anybody who has read the text knows it, because it is absolutely clear that there will have to be those checks Let me make one broader point that was made to me by manufacturers—this is not me speaking; it is what they have said to me. I will not name the company, but people from one of our major motor manufacturers said to me, "We don’t think that we would ever be able to take advantage of any new trade agreements, because we could never prove that 50% of our components come from the UK, and that is one of the rules." That was their concern—[Interruption.] I will make this point, because it is really powerful and if people have not grasped this, they do not know what they are voting for. They said to me, "Our components come from across the EU and at the moment, we can show that 50% of them satisfy the rule to take advantage of the trade agreements that the EU has struck." Their position is that they could never satisfy that requirement if the area is shrunk to the UK and therefore, their point to me was not that they are against new trade agreements—businesses are not—but that they will not be able to take advantage of them. That is what they said to me.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I think I said this in the debate last week, but I will say it again: I am not going to vote for a general election until I know that no deal is off the table and we have an extension. It is as simple as that.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I am concerned about the position in Northern Ireland, and the Secretary of State quoted me on this earlier. It is true that I and the Labour party had reservations about the backstop—I am not sure that there were many people who did not have reservations about it—but on analysis, we thought that it was right for Northern Ireland and therefore, we focused our attention on the political declaration. I criticised it; I said what I thought was wrong with it. I was critical, for example, of the fact that it did not hardwire dynamic alignment of workplace rights, but ultimately, we thought that upholding the Good Friday agreement was more important and more significant I will also say this, because again, it is very important to read the small print: while it is true that the current deal says that Northern Ireland remains, as it were, in the UK’s customs territory, it goes on to explain that for goods going into Northern Ireland, the only ones that escape going effectively into the EU’s customs union are those that are at no risk of going beyond Northern Ireland and are not going into manufacturing, so the volume of goods that cross the border that truly are treated as if Northern Ireland is in the customs union is only that small category. The burden of proving that is on the person who is exporting. Can the Secretary of State, or anybody, explain how that can operate without very careful and extensive checks?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I agree, and that is a point that I will develop. In recognition of the previous Prime Minister, although she said that, I always felt that she had a profound sense of public duty, that she properly recognised the real risks of no deal, and that ultimately she would not have taken us there. I do not have that trust in the current Prime Minister.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Labor
Madeleine Moon (Labour, Centre-left): Ultimately, the bottom line is the future of people’s livelihoods. Never mind our emotional passions about being or not being in the European Union; what are the implications for workers and their jobs? Ford is leaving Bridgend, where it has 1,700 jobs—with 12,000 jobs across the south Wales economy—because it was worried about a no-deal Brexit. I have looked at this text, and there is a real risk that this is the end of just-in-time manufacturing in the whole UK. Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Foreign Trade
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I have taken a lot of interventions and will take more later, but first I will make some progress It is important that we work through not just the technicalities of the deal, but where it leads us politically, because this is about the direction of travel for our country. If we go to a bare FTA, which is what it would mean, the Government’s own estimates show that there will be a loss of approximately 6.7% to growth in GDP over 15 years, and every region and nation will be poorer for it. The Prime Minister’s letter of 19 August to Donald Tusk made it clear that from the Government’s point of view and his own, the point of our exit is to allow the UK to diverge from the rights and standards of the EU. Let’s nail this one: you do not need that if you want to go up and have better standards. We do not have to break the rule to bring in better standards—we can do that under the existing rule—so anybody who wants to change the rule is not doing it to have the freedom to bring in better standards, because they do not need to change the rule for that; the only reason to diverge is to go down. That is why, on this question of divergence, it is very important to focus on the level playing field protections. As I say, those have been taken out of what is legally binding and put into the political declaration, and they apply in full only until the end of the transition period in 2020 It is obvious where the Government are going. They want a licence to deregulate and diverge. I know they will disavow that, I know they want the deal through, and I know they will say, "Never. Of course not", but it is obvious where it leads. Once we have diverged and moved out of alignment with the EU, trade will become more difficult. The EU will no longer be seen as our priority in trade and the gaze will go elsewhere to make up for it. Once we move out of alignment, we will not move back, and the further we move out, the harder it will be to trade with the EU27, and once that happens, we will have broken the economic model we have been operating under for decades, and we will start to look elsewhere—across to the United States Our gaze will shift to the United States, and that is a different economic model. It is not just another country; it is a different economic model, a deregulated model. In the US, the holiday entitlement is 10 days. Many contracts at work are called contracts "at will". Hugely powerful corporate bodies have far more power than the workforce. This is not a technical decision about the EU but a political direction of travel that takes us to a different economic mode—one of deregulation and low standards, where the balance between the workforce and corporate bodies is far worse.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Anna Rhiannon McMorrin (Labour, Centre-left): Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that this is a project and ideology for the right by the hard right? It does not get Brexit done. We should be thinking about our children’s future. We need to put this back to the people. We need to listen to all those people, to the hundreds and thousands marching out there today, to those young people, and give them a say in their future.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Clive Stanley Efford (Labour, Centre-left): The Conservatives have luxuriated in telling us that the Benn Act undermined their negotiations by forcing them into preventing no deal from being on the table if we left on 31 October, but the Prime Minister has said that he has negotiated a "great deal" with that restriction in place, so what possible argument can they have for not agreeing that we cannot leave at the end of the next phase of negotiations with no deal, at the end of 2020? Why would they not accept that restriction, given that they negotiated what the Prime Minister calls a great deal?
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I have never accepted the proposition that insuring the country against no deal undermines the negotiations. I remind Members that at no point in the two years of the negotiating window that closed on 29 March did the House take no deal off the table. The entire negotiations were carried out with the risk of no deal. The previous Prime Minister brought back a deal, and half her own side would not vote for it.
European Union (Withdrawal) Acts — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): Of course we would, but the point is this, and it has not been answered by any of these interventions. Since the current rule allows you to have higher standards, why do you write into the deal that you want to diverge?