Brexit

I stand for a Clean Break from the European Union as soon as possible, in fulfillment of our national democratic decision in 2016, to Leave the EU. 

The Tories will not deliver this without considerable pressure. Their slogan “Get Brexit Done” and their Manifesto promise to “put our deal through Parliament before Christmas and leave the European Union in January” is a colossal deception.

If Johnson’s “deal” is passed, it guarantees the exact opposite of their claim: we will not “leave the EU” in January. All that happens is that the UK enters the transitional Withdrawal Agreement, under which the UK Remains part of the EU, still following EU law and paying them billions a year, but with complete loss of the “Three V’s” of Voice, Vote and Veto.

For Johnson to claim that this “Leaves” the EU is a complete abuse of language: we will have swapped one EU Treaty for a different EU Treaty, that’s all. For as long as the Transition lasts, we will still be part of the EU, just in an impotent position, worse than we have now. It guarantees years more bitter wrangling.

Under the Tory plan, they will try to get a Free Trade Agreement with the EU within the next year. This is most unlikely to happen. So we will not really stop being governed by the EU for many years, unless and until the EU agrees to release us. 

There is an option to exit on Clean Break terms in December 2020. But if we are prepared to use that in December, why not in January ?

It would be far better to Leave the EU with a Clean Break on 31 January with absolutely no strings attached, and no ransom paid (£39 billion and rising fast). We have true independence from that date forward. We retrieve our fishing grounds, lost for a generation to the EU. We extricate ourselves from the “toxic debt” liabilities in the European Investment Bank. We recover true independence in Defence and national security.

The UK and EU can also agree to use the GATT world trade rules to continue tariff-free trade whilst a complete Free Trade Agreement is reached. Negotiating as equals, we will get a much better deal from them and will have saved colossal amounts of ransom money far better spent on regional development in depressed areas across the UK.