Westminster Diary from Worcester MP Robin Walker - The Worcester Observer

Westminster Diary from Worcester MP Robin Walker

Worcester Editorial 30th Jun, 2017   0

THE DEBATE on the Queen’s Speech dominates another week of Parliament with legislation for the programme of laws to enable us to leave the EU with maximum certainty, continuity and control.

A bill to repeal the European Communities Act and ensure our body of law is stable and consistent will be followed by bills on immigration, customs, trade defence and other subjects.

Out of the twenty-seven pieces of legislation set out by Her Majesty, the process of leaving the European Union will take eight.

As a Minister in the department, this is going to be a major challenge and the new laws are only part of the work we face.




Right at the start of our negotiations we want to secure the position of four million British and EU citizens living respectively in each other’s territories.

It is vital we do so and last Monday the Government set out a fair and comprehensive offer to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living here.


We will be negotiating to ensure the more than one million UK citizens who have chosen to live in the EU get the same treatment.

We should be proud that Britain, which has always been a welcoming country, continues to be so and, as we take greater control in the years to come, we must make sure we continue to be a magnet for talent and an open, outward looking global nation.

In Worcester our valued Muslim community has been celebrating the end of their Ramadan fasts with the celebrations of Eid al-Fitr.

The strong community reaction from all faiths to the appalling and unjustifiable attacks on the Finsbury Park mosque recently reflected the respect and sense of community between different faiths in the city.

We are a faithful city but one of many faiths and that is something we should all celebrate.

I was not surprised to see Worcester written up in the national papers recently as the best place to live in the UK.

All our communities contribute to this and that is something to celebrate.

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