Mr Speaker, I have no doubt that all Honourable Members will agree that we should start today’s session by formally recording for Hansard, and therefore for posterity in the documentary archive of this House, that this is the first time that the Parliament meets since our legal departure from membership of the European Union.
We are still, of course, in what has been termed ‘the Transition Period.’
Practical arrangements therefore remain, under the Withdrawal Agreement and Gibraltar Protocol, as they were before our legal departure from the EU.
Mr Speaker there will be a need, no doubt, for me to address the House again in coming months on the many aspects of the negotiation of our future relationship with the EU.
I shall be seeking to come here and inform Honourable Members and the public as often as possible in order to ensure the greatest possible level of transparency in respect of such negotiations as we may embark on.
For today, however, I want to do no more than simply record for Hansard that the debates in this House from today relate to our position outside legal membership of the EU.
