The newly appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab, was interrupted by displeased members of Parliament, as he was speaking on the White Paper, published by the government on July 12.
The document called ‘The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union' is 104 pages long.
As Mr. Raab was outlining the policies set by the Brexit White paper, his fellow MPs expressed frustration with the fact that they haven't actually seen a copy of the document.
Dominic Raab under heavy fire from MPs as he discusses a #BrexitWhitePaper that the government hadn't even let Parliament see! Even Bercow has to effectively defend him saying: it's not all his fault. pic.twitter.com/KkIpt3LWJi
— Femi (@Femi_Sorry) July 12, 2018
Loud noise created by MPs interrupted Mr. Raab's statement and led the Speaker of the Chamber to say:
"It is a source of considerable unhappiness in this chamber as his manifest and has been over the last hour or so on both sides of the House, that the right honorable gentleman is delivering a statement about a White Paper, copies of which are not currently available to the members of the House of Commons," Mr. Bercow said.
WATCH Chaos as @DominicRaab begins his statement on the Brexit White Paper without any MPs having copies of the document, forcing John Bercow to suspend the debate while MPs scramble to get a copy. pic.twitter.com/7xYiLUGqyM
— The Red Roar (@TheRedRoar) July 12, 2018
With that Mr. Bercow suspended the session, while some MPs left the chamber and others were soon handed physical copies of the White Paper.
Chaos. The sitting of the @HouseofCommons is suspended whilst MPs are distributed copies of the @DExEUgov white paper. @theresa_may promised a strong and stable government. They can’t even publish a white paper and get it to MPs on time pic.twitter.com/ZdBwE47EmC
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) July 12, 2018
'Unprecedented Economic Partnership'
The released document talks about a "principled, pragmatic and ambitious" Brexit and aims to keep Britain and the bloc in a free market for goods, with a looser relationship for services.
"In the referendum on 23 June 2016 — the largest ever democratic exercise in the United Kingdom — the British people voted to leave the European Union. And that is what we will do — leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union, ending free movement and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in this country," UK Prime Minister Theresa May said in a foreword to the paper.
According to the government, the economic partnership with the European Union will include:
Mr. Raab has called for an "innovative and unprecedented economic partnership" between Britain and the EU. He also called on the EU to the released policy document.
"Now, it is time for the EU to respond in kind, we approach these negotiations with a spirit of pragmatism, compromise and, indeed, friendship, I hope, I trust that the EU will engage with our proposals in the same spirit. There should be a firm commitment in the withdrawal agreement requiring the framework for the future relationship to be translated into legal text as soon as possible."
