FORMER PM’S EXCORIATING INTERVENTION

Enough of fake facts and bogus promises. A complete break with Europe? It’s a disaster in waiting. So, Prime Minister, I urge you to disown the...

It’sI time to move on from soundbitess to sound policyy

A patriotic rallying cry from the former PM

THE nation has voted to leave the EU. The Government has decided to leave the Single Market. It is likely that Article 50, which begins this process, will be i mplemented this month. But the terms upon which we leave will depend upon the outcome of negotiations yet to begin. It is vital that these negotiations focus not only on our corporate and economic interests, but also on the individual wellbeing of millions of British people. We all need to know what is happening and why – and what it will mean.

Foreign investors such as Nissan, Toyota and Honda most likely invested in the UK believing that they would enjoy unrestricted access to the full European market. They – and their British workforce – will be anxiously awaiting the results of trade negotiations.

As will the agricultural sector, where incomes will be halved without European subsidies unless they are replicated by the taxpayer or higher farm prices – the latter of which would not only be very unpopular with consumers but very unlikely. I say ‘unlikely’ because, as we seek new free trade deals with the US, Australia and New Zealand, it would be astonishing if they did not demand greater access to our domestic market – and, in so doing, hold down the income of farmers.

Since these and so many other decisions will affect every single British citizen, I should like to appeal again for a more considered and thoughtful debate on the issues that will determine our future.

It is time to move on from soundbites to sound policy.

The debate in the referendum short-changed the public on facts: everyone – politicians, press and public – must try to make good that deficit.

People need and deserve information they can rely on – not disinformation deployed as a seductive persuader. George Orwell once wrote: ‘In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’

IDO NOT suggest deceit in the European debate has been universal but a great deal of fiction has been woven into the facts by people who should be serving both the public and the Prime Minister better. So, if the unvarnished truth is a revolution, then it is well worth encouraging.

The 48 per cent who voted Remain have as big a stake in our future as the 52 per cent who voted Leave: they, and especially parliamentarians, have a right – indeed a duty – to express their views. No one can, or should, be silenced.

That being so, it is time for the minority of ‘Ultra Brexiteers’ – those who believe in a complete break from Europe – to stop shouting down anyone with an opposing view. It is not only unattractive but profoundly undemocratic and totally unBritish. What is most striking is that, amid all the noise they make, they comprehensively fail to address any argument put to them.

Instead, they launch vitriolic and personal attacks on the Governor of the Bank of England, judges, civil servants, for- eign leaders, politicians and other public figures. In doing so, they demean both themselves and their cause. These ‘Ultras’ are terrified that their triumph in taking us out of Europe will be snatched away.

But if that is their fear, why do they not defend their position with logic and passion, with thoughtful, cogent argument, instead of the low-grade personal abuse that has been their standard response so far?

If the rancour merely came from rabble elements, or extreme minorities, it could be ignored. But when it comes from politicians, including those from within the governing party, it is time to confront it. Other parliamentary Brexiteers, from all parties, are more reasoned, more civil, and more democratic. They should disown their rancorous colleagues. There are testing times to come. What we need is a serious discussion.

Ahead of the Government lie some of the most complex and contentious decisions facing any peacetime administration.

And the only certainty before us is that the future will be very different from anything we have known in the past. Although the UK seems set to leave the Single Market – for reasons that baffle our friends around the world and dismay most foreign investors in our country – we still wish to trade with our neighbours in Europe. They are, after all, nearly one half of our total trade.

The Government will try to negotiate a trading arrangement that, inevitably, will be less advantageous and more cumbersome for our exporters than the Single Market.

But they may fail. The outcome we seek may be unattainable, the terms unacceptable.

In such circumstances, the ‘Ultras’ have a solution: it is that we should break wholly away from the EU, and trade with our European neighbours under what are known as WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules.

It all sounds so simple – but emphatically is not. And, compared to our present position, it is disadvantageous in every way. It would mean that 90 per cent of our exports to the EU would become more expensive to buy and, therefore, less competitive. They would face tariffs that would add about £6billion to their costs – and the UK would lose sales.

Our dairy exports could face tariffs of 36 per cent, thus increasing their price by more than a third.

OUR automotive industry, currently so successful, could face a tariff of ten per cent on the final price, which would seriously hit the workforce and exports. But that’s not all. Imported components – which are standard fittings in all our cars, lorries and trucks – would face further tariffs and, to add complexity to cost for our exporters, they would need to produce certificates of origin for all nonBritish fittings and components. At present, the global success of our manufacturing industry is greatly enhanced by the free-flow of trade within Europe. Under WTO rules, that will end.

Nor is it just our agriculture and automotive industries that will be made less competitive: clothing, footwear, drinks, plastics, machinery – every sector of our successful exports will be affected. The WTO option is not a panacea – it is a disasterin-waiting for British exports and the British economy.

You will be told this is fearmongering. It is not. It is fact. You will also be told – indeed, have already been told by senior Ministers – that it is ‘perfectly OK’ to fall back on WTO terms.

But it is worth reflecting

that those who make such reassuring noises include the very same people who urged the UK to vote Leave on the basis that ‘we will be able to give an extra £350million a week to the NHS’; that ‘nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market’; and that ‘there is no prospect of a second Scottish referendum’.

We already know that all three of the above – and much else – were fake facts and bogus promises.

It was dishonest and wrong to promise the British people an easy, favourable deal with the EU, wrong to promise swift new trade deals, and wrong to state that the Irish peace process would not be unsettled by Brexit.

Two weeks ago I tried to encourage a more serious tone of debate. I posed some serious questions.

As yet, I am still awaiting serious answers – or, indeed, any answers at all.

The British people deserve the truth. So, yet again, I ask for the fiction to be ditched, and the facts to be faced.

There are many millions of people across the UK who have been left dismayed and despairing over the glib rhetoric that has prevailed over serious argument.

They need to be reassured the decision made in last year’s referendum was the right one – for them, their families and for future generations.

I expect the Prime Minister to go into the negotiations with skill, persuasion and diplomacy. Others should follow her example.

Only then will we start to heal the wounds that have been inflicted by this divisive debate which, thus far, has been one of the most damaging in the history of British politics.