Leaving the EU: Customs Arrangements — [Mr Gary Streeter in the Chair]

Part of Backbench Business – in Westminster Hall at 2:30 pm on 10 July 2018.

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Photo of Stephen Hammond Stephen Hammond Conservative, Wimbledon 2:30, 10 July 2018

The hon. Gentleman is right, but I say to him, and I am sure that he will accept it, that until we actually put a proposition down to negotiate with, there was nothing to negotiate with. Until the Chequers proposal, it might well have been said by a number of our soon-to-be former EU partners that there actually was not a deal to negotiate on. There were the Prime Minister’s principles: no hard border in Ireland, frictionless trade and the ability to do free trade deals. Those are principles and there is nothing wrong with those principles, but they were not an executable plan. Until they were an executable plan, there was nothing to negotiate on.