Boris: ‘Freedom is what you make of it’
‘FREEDOM is what you make of it,’ the Prime Minister has vowed as he promised ‘big changes’ in the wake of his Brexit trade deal.
Boris Johnson said his agreement would provide new legislative and regulatory powers to help ‘spread opportunity’ and to ‘deliver for people who felt left behind’.
He said that animal welfare, data and chemicals were areas where the UK could diverge from EU standards in the future.
Mr Johnson added that Chancellor Rishi Sunak had started work on reforms to business taxes and regulation, and he hailed plans for ten new low-tax free ports to be established across the country.
He confirmed that the UK would finally be able to abolish the ‘tampon tax’ by reducing VAT on sanitary products to zero. This was forbidden while a member of the EU. The free trade agreement with the EU was reached on Christmas Eve after last-minute battles on fisheries and the car industry.
The Prime Minister said he was confident that the deal could stand the ‘most ruthless scrutiny’ from the hardline European Research Group of MPs.
He added that ‘big changes’ were coming, adding: ‘It is up to us now to seize the opportunity of Brexit.’
Mr Johnson told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘It’s one thing to gain your freedom, but we can’t be like Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times’ – a reference to the 1936 film in which the Little Tramp is released from jail, only to then seek reimprisonment after struggling to cope with life on the outside.
He said: ‘We can’t sort of suddenly decide that we’re free and then not decide how to exercise it. This Government has a very clear agenda to unite and level up and to spread opportunity across the country.’
Mr Johnson said there would be reforms to business tax and regulation, adding that Mr Sunak is ‘doing a big exercise on all of this’. He said: ‘What I say to my colleagues is free ports, yes; free trade deals, fantastic; changing animal welfare regulations, great; new stuff on data or chemicals, let’s have a look at it all.’
Asked about economic prospects, he said: ‘Freedom is what you make of it. It’s up to us now to seize the opportunities. We are going to do our best and I think it does present considerable advantages, but we have a very big challenge now with Covid.’
■ Mr Johnson was taunted by France’s Europe minister yesterday for ‘betraying’ British fishermen with the Brexit deal.
Clement Beaune shared articles online in which fishermen bemoaned giving the EU significant access to British waters. One was headlined: ‘British fishermen blame Boris Johnson for having capitulated.’
Under the deal, the UK will take back 25 per cent of the current EU quotas of fish caught in our waters over the next five and a half years. UK negotiators had initially wanted 80 per cent over three years.
Industry leader Barrie Deas said fishermen felt ‘the UK has made significant concessions on fish in order to secure a trade deal’.
‘Clear agenda to spread opportunity’