Webchat with Anna Soubry on Brexit and beyond - Tuesday 22 January at 10.30am

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Anna Soubry MP to discuss all things Brexit. Anna was a Remain campaigner and currently supports calls for a second referendum. Anna made headlines a couple of weeks ago when she was harassed outside Parliament and urged the police to take more action.

Anna has been the Conservative MP for Broxtowe since the 2010 General Election. After more than a year attending Cabinet as Minister of State for Small Business, Anna chose to return to the backbenches in July 2016, be able to represent her views on the “positive benefits of immigration and the EU.”

Please do join the chat on Tuesday at 10.30am, or if you can’t make it, leave a question here in advance.

We’re expecting this to be a busy webchat, so only existing Mumsnet users are able to post on this thread.

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered and please keep it civil. Also if one topic is overwhelmingly dominating a discussion with a guest, mods might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

And finally - we did have a pro-Brexit webchat guest lined up for this week (Jacob Rees Mogg) but they cancelled on us so we’re trying to line up a replacement as we speak.

Many thanks.

The official portrait of Anna Soubry is used under an Attribution 3.0 Unported licence - image may be cropped for purpose.

I am a European Citizen. I hold a National Insurance number since 1991.
I have bought my first flat here around that period.
I have been resident here from 1991 to 1998 and from 2014 to now. I am on the electoral roll. I pay taxes. I own my house outright. My child goes to school here.
I have applied today for settled status via the app.
I paid the further £65 to be told that there is no evidence of my residence for the past 6 months- note that I have paid a sizable.amount of taxes and a further very sizable.ampunt is due on the 31 of January.
I now have to go through all my bank statements and prove my presence here. Electricity bills count only for the specificmonth.
So, I have to prove my right of being here and contributing with a sizable amount of taxes and paying a further tax in order to prove it.
WHY?
I just feel milked by your country.

Thank you so much for standing up and fighting for the interests of the country in spite of the personal challenges this has brought you. Do you share Stephen Crabb's pessimism about the state of the Conservative Party, and how do you see the future of the Party post-Brexit in the light of its unpopularity with younger voters?

Panzotti, I'm so sorry that you are gong through this.

With the benefit of hindsight, do you think proper risk/impact assessments should have been made AND published prior to offering the public a referendum on an issue of such magnitude?

I would like to thank you very much for having the courage of your convictions. I can't imagine what is like to be subjected to so much vitriol. I take my hat off to you.

panzotti. I work with a lot of Europeans and have heard more than one story like your own. I am so sorry you are going through this nonsense and feel ashamed to be British at the moment.

How do you justify pursuing a course of action to Remain at any cost, when a majority your constituents have made it clear, in the Referendum and since, that they support leaving the EU?

As you clearly don't see your role is about representing your constituents' thoughts, issues or preferences in Parliament, what do you think is the role of an MP?

Hi Anna,

I'm a British citizen, but as a long-term resident of another European country I was not allowed to vote. I do not recognize the referendum result as being democratic,given that it effectively disenfranchised so many UK citizens. People keep on saying 'Britain voted to leave', but it didn't really because not everyone was able to vote. What do you think about the way long-term expats have been treated?

As it happens, I'm going to be OK - I now have citizenship of my adopted country and am proud to have done so. But I still feel shocked that my home country has effectively said 'we don't care about you'. Other countries actually seem to like their expats.

Thank you so much for speaking up about the madness of Brexit and I'm sorry about the abuse you receive. I am truly ashamed of what my country has become thanks to David Cameron's referendum.

My question is -
What is the big deal about the Tory party splitting? So what if they do. It seems to me the major concern of Teresa May, and David Cameron before her, and what drove this whole divisive referendum in the first place was trying to keep the Tory party together, country came way down in comparison. Why is that and why is the Tory party treated as if it is more important than the country?

Snog.
Marry.
Avoid / POAC.

Boris Johnson
Jacob Rees Mogg
Jeremy Corbyn

No cheating.

As you clearly don't see your role is about representing your constituents' thoughts, issues or preferences in Parliament, what do you think is the role of an MP?

MPs have a duty not only to their constituents, but to act in the best interests of the country. MPs are not delegates, so while they may consider the views of their constituents, they are not obliged to act on them. If the constituents don't like it, they can vote for someone else next time. I really can't see why anyone would think MPs are obliged to do everything their contituents want.

My question was already asked by onalongsabbatical, which may be difficult to answer but if some kind of central party of responsible remainers could be formed it would get my vote. Thank you for all your efforts in reigning in the unacceptable traits in the Tory party and the broader HoC

Anna are you able to understand why leave won and why people voted leave, leaving aside the nonsense arguments that they are all stupid and purely read the side of the bus, were mis informed etc etc.

Do you respect that actually, whilst on both sides a minority vote will be mis informed (on bothsides) actually most leave voters have valid reasons to want to leave.

Do you respect and understand that and understand their reasons.

It's just for me, I can argue for both sides. I started voted remain, however it was an obvious choice really and since the vote I have educated myself on why voters went leave, on the the eu... And all the worrying issues with it and I can assure you I would vote leave, if there was a second referendum and several friends and colleagues would actually do the same.

Every political upheaval will cause worry, stress to the Economy etc. But that's not a reason to make change where its deemed necessary.
It concerns me that some people seemed so entrenched and perhaps, lacking the skills to see both sides of the argument.. Is why we ended up in this predicament in the first place.

I would like politicians to be bright enough and educated enough to be able to debate and see both sides of any argument.

Do you agree that events following a No Deal scenario would create a National Emergency as defined in the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act, and if not why not? How do you think anyone, let alone so-called leaders in this country, could be insane enough to view this as a good and viable option for our 65 million people? What is being done to prevent both these events and the potential misuse of Emergency powers associated with such a situation?

I will be working through this webchat so please consider this as both my main and follow-on question!

I think a No Deal Brexit will be a disaster.

I went to two big marches, I wrote to my MP about it but it seems too little.
What else can I do?

Hello Anna, welcome to Mumsnet, and thank you for your sterling work and bravery in sticking your head up above the parapet and saying what needs to be said about this shambolic catastrophe Brexit.

I am worried about a second referendum because I think people are more entrenched in their various positions than before if that's possible.

But... if we have one :

1. how can we change people's opinions about the EU?

1. can British citizens residents abroad (like me and my family) please be included in the vote this time around?

Thank you.

MPs don't have any duty to the country Their duties are to their constituents, their party and Parliament.

I can't think either why anyone would think an MP should have to do everything his or her constituents want. But given that an MP has a duty to their constituents, when an overwhelming majority of them vote in a particular way on a referendum issue, and when that MP campaigned for re-election on a party manifesto committed to honouring the result of the Referendum and leaving the EU - instead, if they were opposed to this course of action, resigning from the party and running as an independent - but then continues to argue against this cause of action, by any means, once re-elected, it does seem very curious indeed, and worthy of discussion.

Naturally, the people can vote their MP out - I am given to understand, following discussions with his constituents last year, Mr Grieve has decided not to seek re-election in the next GE- but what happens then if people who know better decide that elections should be re-run because the voters last time didn't understand? I really can't see why anyone could think that would be a problem

I hope one day we are treated to MPs with integrity, instead of typical paternalistic behaviour, but in the interim, heaven forbid anyone should question this...

Hi Anna,

I'd like to know why on earth you think it is a good thing to spend £56billion plus on HS2 without a shred of evidence that it will bring any benefits to the East Midlands particularly given the recent woeful environmental and equality impact assessments 'consulted' upon by HS2, the illegal purchase of land by HS2, the inflated projected passenger numbers, ( the poor dears have never heard of wifi, I feel sorry for them) and now the assertion that trains on the line will go slower to cut costs.

Stop HS2.

Thank you for standing up to this madness that is Brexit and it's shocking that you have suffered for it.

How can the result of the referendum be respected considering

a) people didn't have the information now known
b) they were fed outright lies
c) Electoral rules were broken
and d) possible 'outside' interference?

I can't understand why there aren't more MPs like you doing their utmost to stop us leaving the EU, especially as it's driven by a small (but very dangerous) minority of the far right.

Apart from the possibility of a 2nd referendum, how can Brexit be stopped when it's clearly going to have an extremely serious negative impact?

(You are a wonderful example of an MP.)

MPs don't have any duty to the country
Yes. They do. It is in the MP's Code of Conduct, which is online here. You might like to read it
People really, really don't understand our political system at all, yet seem completely sanguine about making factually inaccurate assertions about it.

What the heck do you think is going to happen to Brexit between now & 29 March 2019?

Thank you for taking part in this webchat Anna.

How quickly following no deal do you think the UK could re-join the EU ? Given that 26% of the public polled recently by Sky thought that no deal meant staying in the EU.

Hello Anna

How do you intend to take no-deal off the table?

Or will you also put party ahead of country & vote for her deal as well?

Thank you.

Hello Anna,

Thank you for doing this webchat.

I just wondered what you thought about people like Arron Banks and their financial involvement with the Leave movement? That all seems to have gone pretty quiet.

Many thanks.

Sorry about the abuse you have received - it's disgusting and unacceptable. I hope the Police are properly protecting you.