The long-awaited White Paper on the Future Relationship between the UK and the EU, has been published (12 July 2018). This follows on from the contents being agreed (unanimously) by the Cabinet at the recent meeting at Chequers. The document has more than 104 pages.
The newly appointed Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, is making a statement to the House of Commons about the Brexit White Paper. The statement was interrupted and the House of Commons suspended while MPs were given copies of the white paper. John Bercow, however, rejected a further request to suspend the sitting so that MPs could have time to read the White Paper.
(in case you don’t know who Domininc Raab is …)
https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/Dominic-Raab/4007
Here’s the statement:
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement about the UK’s future relationship with the European Union.
Let me start by paying tribute to my Right Honourable Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden, and his Herculean efforts along with my Honourable Friend the Member for Wycombe and the wider Dexeu team, to get us to this point in both the negotiations and the successful passage of the EU Withdrawal Bill. It is a striking achievement.
My Right Honourable Friend is a loss to Government, but I suspect, with the mildest apprehension, a considerable gain to this House.
Shortly, we will publish the Government’s White Paper on the UKs Future Relationship with the European Union. It is a new and detailed proposal for a principled, pragmatic and ambitious future partnership between the UK and the EU, in line with the policy agreed at Chequers last week.
I am placing a copy of the White Paper in the Libraries of both Houses, but let me briefly set out the key proposals. Mr Speaker, the Government is determined to build a new relationship that works for both the UK and the EU, one grounded in our shared history, but which looks to a bright and ambitious future. A relationship that delivers real and lasting benefit to both sides.
First, Mr Speaker the White Paper confirms that the UK will leave the European Union on 29 March 2019, forging a new way in the world – outside the Single Market, outside the Customs Union. It safeguards the constitutional and economic integrity of the UK. It reclaims the UK’s sovereignty. and it protects our economic interests, by minimising the risk of disruption to trade.