Andrew Lewin MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Sept 2026 · Online Safety · Hansard source

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  I commend my right hon. Friend for her statement, but also for her personal decision to leave Elon Musk’s X. I left the platform over a year ago because I did not want to have any association with a platform whose founder has consistently called for civil war in our country and that amplifies extremist content. When she sits around the Cabinet table, will she make the case to her colleagues that there are many ways we can reach our constituents by social media, but we do not have to play by Elon Musk’s rules?

• 2 Sept 2026 · EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK · Hansard source

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  It is good to see you in the Chair, Ms Butler, in the first week of a new term. I congratulate the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) on securing this debate. Brexit has been an unmitigated failure: our economy is smaller, thousands of UK businesses have stopped exporting to the EU altogether and our position in the world has been diminished. I put on the record my thanks to the former Prime Minister and Chancellor for all the work that they did on a repair job in the first two years of this Government, but, in the brief time that I have today, I will focus on what comes next. I am pleased to see the Minister in Westminster Hall today and I welcome him to his role. I will talk specifically today about the importance of a youth mobility deal, because a visa-based scheme for 18 to 30-year-olds to allow them to travel freely between the United Kingdom and the European Union is something I have advocated for since my first few weeks in this place, and publicly since April 2025. The Government are in active negotiations with the EU about a youth mobility scheme as we speak. The prospect of such a deal has proven popular with the public; every poll on the subject consistently shows that there is broad support for a youth mobility deal. However, this is a moment to be courageous and ambitious, because we read in the media that there is a live debate about the number of people who will be subject to a youth mobility scheme—100,000, or slightly more than 100,000. In a context where net migration to the United Kingdom has fallen from a record high of over 800,000 to less than 200,000, I hope and believe that that should give Ministers the space and the confidence to agree an ambitious youth mobility deal. This negotiation is also a test of our Government’s ability to secure an agreement. Lots of pro-Europeans engaging with this subject and watching this debate want to see our Government engage in something that meaningfully moves our relationship with Europe forward. Achieving a youth mobility deal can be a test of that. I admire the Prime Minister’s courage in saying that he is going to walk towards difficult issues. With respect to the European Union and the opportunity for a youth mobility deal, I think that he and the Minister can walk towards an opportunity and I hope that they can secure it this year.