D’Arcy in Europort meeting with British Tory MP Crabbe
WEXFORD Fine Gael Deputy Michael D’Arcy held face-to-face talks with British Conservative politician Stephen Crabbe on the potential impact of Brexit in an unheralded meeting at Rosslare Europort recently.
Minister D’Arcy met the former UK work and pensions secretary on foot of an invitation from his office in Wales.
Crabbe, who had campaigned to become the British prime minister following the resignation of David Cameron in the wake of the Brexit referendum, was one of four Conservative leadership contenders who lost out to Theresa May.
A pro-Remainer, he has been the Member of Parliament for Preseli Pembrokeshire in Wales since the 2005 general election.
Deputy D’Arcy said both Wexford and Pembrokeshire were rural counties which shared a lot of port traffic and it made sense for politicians from both sides of the water to hold talks on the feared impact of Brexit on the free movement of goods and services following Brexit.
‘Both counties face similar challenges, said Deputy D’Arcy, who met Mr Crabbe in offices at Rosslare port.
‘We don’t know what is going to hap- pen post-Brexit and we would be anxious that there is some sort of transitional period,’ said the Wexford deputy.
He said both he and Mr Crabbe were concerned about the potential impact of Brexit on the huge amount of bilateral trade that travels between this county and Pembrokeshire and on which hauliers both here and in the UK are dependent.
‘I said openly that the Tory government is an undecided space and they need to make a decision pretty quickly,’ he said.
‘It is concerning that they are going in the direction they are.. that when reality and ideology clash, reality is being ignored,’ Deputy D’Arcy told this newspaper, ‘we have an ideology that is coming into being with Brexit.. but the reality is dawning on Brexiteers that business does not want a cliff face,’ he said, predicting a chaotic period over the next six months.
Deputy D’Arcy said the British Labour party was just as culpable as the Tories for the current situation and said they were still celebrating a glorious defeat. He said he hoped to continue his conversation at future meetings with Mr Crabbe, who he said was ‘here for about an hour before he jumped on the ferry’ back to Wales.