DISASTER IN SIGHT

A complete break with Europe? It’s simply a disaster waiting to happen. So, Prime Minister, I urge you to disown the...

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 implemented 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 well-being 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 invested in the UK believing they would enjoy unrestricted access to the full European market. They – and their British workforces – will anxiously await 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 produce prices.

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. 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. I do not suggest deceit in the European debate has been universal, but a great deal of fiction has been woven into the facts.

The 48 per cent who voted Remain have as big a stake in our future as the 52 per cent who voted Leave.

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 un-British.

They 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, foreign 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 thoughtful, cogent argument, instead of personal abuse?

IF the rancour merely came from 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. 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 than the Single Market. But it may fail. The outcome we seek may be unattainable, the terms unacceptable.

In such circumstances, the ‘Ultras’ have a solution: break wholly away from the EU and trade with Europe under what are known as World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

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

YOU will be told this is fear-mongering. 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’; that ‘there is no prospect of a second Scottish referendum’. We already know 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 say 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, for 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.

It’s time to move on from soundbites to sound policy