Westminster

[Blair]

Introduction

Mr Speaker it is a great honour to be standing here, as the first Liberal Democrat leader of opposition in nearly 100 years. It's great to have 176 Liberal Democrat MPs stood behind me, and I know that we look forward to being the official opposition, and continuing to fight for a new and fairer type of politics. And I think that everyone in this House would agree, that we have a rather new type of politics on display today.(chuckles)

I must congratulate the Rt. Hon member for her elevation to the office of Prime Minister, and I know it's a role that she takes very seriously, and one that she will carry out to be best of her ability .

But I must say Mr Speaker, when we prepared for this Queens Speech, and waited to hear what had been decided between her, and the minor parties on her right (points to UKIP MPs)we didn't expect her to fold so quickly. She's planned a Queens Speech, but she's dealt Britain a pretty bad hand.

The Prime Minister spend the election campaign refusing to outline just what she'd do on health and education spending, and we still don't know. She spend the election saying that UKIP were putting this nation's entire economic future at risk with their focus on Europe; and she's now called for a Referendum. She spend the entire election pretending that the conservative party had changed; and now it's clear for the entire British public. Have the Tories changed? To quote their former leader... No, No, No.

This is a Queens Speech that has come straight from the paranoid depths of the most right wing, the most reactionary and the most extreme government that we have seen in a generation. The people of Britain voted for change this election; but this is not the change that they want.

On Europe

We know that both the DUP and UKIP walked into the negotiating room wanting a referendum on Europe; and we know now that the Chief Whip will no doubt get a honour for his services to the United Kingdom Independence Party. They might even name him honorary chairman.

Never has a government so quickly, and so pathetically collapsed on a central tenant of their entire foreign and economic policy; nowhere in their manifesto was there a mention of a referendum on our membership. In fact I seem to remember someone saying during the campaign...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

By the Prime Ministers own words this is the 'ultimate failure of policy and leadership'. I know that she's always been candid about her party's own failings, but this is a rather frank admission. I suppose now she'll have Mr Nutall yelling from the frontlines of her government.

The Liberal Democrats, and the British people know that parts of the EU need to be improved; we needs to open itself up to more trade deals and that it needs to work to tackle youth unemployment and poverty across Europe, but we do not gain anything by simply walking away. We do not get up and leave, and expect to walk off into some sort of sunset of 1950's nostalgia. We need to fight for Britain to be a leading, powerful, and prosperous voice in the EU. We're stronger in the European Union, and the European Union is stronger with Britain.

If the Conservatives had ran a manifesto with a pledge for a referendum; if they had demonstrated that people wanted a national debate on this issue then we would be supporting them in setting up this referendum. The Liberal Democrats believe in giving power back to the people of this country; this is why we support the government in having a referendum if there is a change in sovereignty, and its why we support a European wide effort to reform all of the EU. But the government’s current approach only offers confusion and chaos to both our allies, and the millions of Europeans who live and work in Britain.

Mr Speaker, any government should know that we need to have laser like focus on investment and jobs. We need to support businesses; whether they're multinational firms like Nissan, or small businesses reliant on migrant labour, they need certainty and stability from the government. They don’t need an unplanned ill thought out referendum that could send us into another crash. So I say this to the Rt. Honourable members on the benches opposite; abandon this plan, and focus on bringing quality jobs and investment to Britain. Do the job that you were sent here to do.

Immigration.

When we move onto the issue of immigration, we can see again that this Queens Speech completely ignores the need for a real recovery; and once again offers soundbites rather than solutions.  People want politicians to offer honest answers on immigration... so I’ll be honest ; a 50,000 cap is bad for Britain.

We don’t fix youth unemployment in Bolton by stopping an American surgeon working in London, we don’t bring investment to Glasgow by stopping an Indian engineer, and we won’t fix our economy by simply drawing a red line and saying, sorry no more. What is there’s an NHS crisis, where we need more doctors, what if our universities want to bring in more overseas students to live, and learn in this country, what if businesses want to bring over skilled workers. Once again this Queens Speech offers no foundation for a recovery, it offers no real answers to Britain’s problems, and all it offers is a chance for UKIP and the DUP a chance to pull the strings.

Conclusion

Mr Speaker, this Queens speech is simply not the best that the conservative party can offer this country. This is a program that will damage our economy, confuse our allies, frighten our businesses, lower our investment, and most importantly; divide our nation. There is simply no mandate for the program that the Government has put forward; both the conservative party, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party received almost 80% of the vote. None of the manifesto's mentioned anything about a referendum on Europe. In the Prime Ministers own words this is a failure of leadership.

So I say to the conservative MP's on the benches opposite; stand up to this failed Queens Speech, stand up for your manifesto, stand up to protect our economy, and, please, stand up for Britain. We deserve so much better than this chaotic, divisive and destructive Queens Speech. The Liberal Democrats will be voting against this Queens Speech, because Britain deserves so much better than this.