This week Parliament resumes for two weeks before conference recess and already it is as if we haven’t been away. On Monday the Select Committee for Exiting the EU on which I sit visited Brussels for a full and frank evidence session with the EU’s chief negotiator – Michel Barnier and on Tuesday heard evidence from the DExEU Permanent Secretary on the Government’s preparedness for Brexit. And what we heard should worry us – with growing signs that the chasms between both sides of the Tory Party and between the EU and the UK may be hard to bridge between now and March.
The big story is the “Chequers” proposal and the white paper which is now the basis for negotiation with the EU. Former Cabinet members Boris Johnson and David Davis have said it is dead. Most of the Tory MPs agree. The ongoing misjudgements and lack of openness and clarity could mean we are heading for what most people don’t want – no deal.
Michel Barnier on our visit to Brussels clearly stated the reasons for rejection of May’s two key Chequers proposals – the Common Rule Book for goods – rightly criticised for artificially separating goods and services in the economy, and secondly the Facilitated Customs Arrangement (FCA). The FCA aims to deliver “frictionless trade” in goods between the UK and the EU after Brexit. Experts at the UK Trade Policy Observatory have outlined why this is such a core issue. Trade that is ‘as frictionless as possible’ with the EU is “has been characterised by much of business as essential.” They say “It also matters in the short term, however, because it is the UK government’s offer to the EU on how to ensure that there is no border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Without a solution to this latter problem there will be no Withdrawal Agreement and no transition.”
The challenge raised with us in the EU is that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic will no longer just be that between two parts of Ireland, but will become the main land border between the UK and the EU. Without a clear sustainable agreement, Brexit is set to undermine an open border between the UK and the EU. May’s FCA aims to reconstruct it by ensuring that any good entering the EU via the UK is treated identically to any good entering the EU directly – replicating the conditions of the current customs union for UK exports to the EU while allowing the UK to negotiate different tariffs with third countries. The EU has rejected this on the basis of integrity of the EU’s single market which the UK has helped over so many years to create, giving controls at the border to a third country, costs and bureaucracy in tracing the origin of goods, standards of goods and rules for what can enter the EU.
Whilst we battle on the basics of trade policy, breaking systems that have worked for our prosperity for decades, we see another worrying geo political trend as nations loosen their ties.Simon Coveney, the Republic of Ireland’s Foreign Minister recently gave a very important speech in Germany. It clearly indicated how Ireland is moving to develop new close partnerships and allies of other powerful countries in Europe, put the interests of the EU block first and how Britain is becoming a less significant and powerful player both in regional and in global affairs. In addition, as the EU moves forward on other critical strategic security, social and economic challenges, the issue of Brexit is becoming less and less important to the majority of EU nations.
I have never experienced a time when from a position of great strength and respect in the world, we are now entering a period of unprecedented political, economic and legal uncertainty without a clear vision of what we are as a country and what we stand for. Its no surprise that time and again constituents are asking me what is going on - are we leaving the EU? Will there be a second referendum? What does “backstop” – the EU’s key condition on the Irish border – actually mean? Will there be a general election? The real answer is that nobody knows. This autumn is set to be a roller coaster ride in Parliament as battle lines are drawn within the Tory party as divisions widen and within the country. I hope for our country’s sake that there is a proper pause for thought, and that before we hurtle towards the precipice of no deal, that we take a proper stock of what we are doing, how much it’s going to cost us with public services already being cut back to the bone, and how the interests of British businesses and families get put ahead of the interests of the Tory party.
