Valerie speaks to a motion on proceedings of the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill

On behalf of HM Opposition, I spoke to a business motion which set out the timetable for MP’s to debate the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill. The Government allocated a single day for parliamentary scrutiny of all stages of this Bill – a completely inadequate amount of time for such an important piece of legislation. You can read my full speech below: 

“Clearly the Opposition are desperately disappointed that there was not enough time to debate this deal properly. This is unacceptable. It puts a great deal of pressure on House staff and everybody else, but I am pleased that the virtual Parliament will enable our colleagues to take part in it.

The Opposition have facilitated this. We facilitated the time because we want to say that this is not our deal, but we will vote for legislation that will enact it to prevent no deal. That is the key point about why we are here today: we want to prevent no deal, which would have a great effect on our economy and our constituents. We support the motion to enable this legislation to come forward because we are up against a deadline of 31 December. After that, there would be no deal, and we must stop it, so the Opposition agree with the programme motion.”