Free from Brussels, the UK will thrive

Last week, Michel Barnier, who has been holding up Brexit negotiations with tired old demands he knows Britain cannot accept, challenged Mark Francois over what the “added value” would be in leaving the EU – in other words, suggesting it was a waste of time and effort. Pro-Europeans are meanwhile asking, in the middle of a pandemic, shouldn’t Britain be hugging closer to Brussels, not pulling away?

But by a marvellous coincidence, Mr Barnier chose to disparage British independence almost exactly at the time that the UK Government decided to relaunch its post-Brexit planning, answering his very question. This newspaper has argued for months that Brexit gives us exactly the opportunity we need to get the economy out of the coronavirus quagmire – and, as Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, writes on this page, “taking back control” means we can now spend the money that used to go to Brussels on our priorities and “put in place the right measures for our Covid recovery”.

The attitude change at the top is refreshing: all the delay and doubt of the May era is gone. Mr Gove promises an investment of £705million in infrastructure and jobs to ensure the borders are ready to operate; new technology, he says, will help give us the most effective border in the world by 2025. This announcement comes 24 hours after it emerged that the Government has bought 27 acres of land near Dover to build a vast customs clearance area for lorries – a big improvement on the sluggish planning regime of Theresa May.

At the same time, we can reveal that Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is planning to unveil further details of the new points-based immigration system, including a visa for key health workers and a “graduate route” to allow international students to stay longer in the UK to secure jobs. This is a welcome reminder that Brexit was never about being anti-immigration but about being in control of immigration, and under these reforms we will get to decide who comes and how long they can stay.

The most exciting and ambitious step is the plan boosted by Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, to create up to 10 new free ports within the first year of Brexit. This will be transformatory for local economies. After decades of being dominated by London – the vital engine of our economy, no doubt – towns, cities and whole regions will now be able to compete not just nationally but globally for business, thanks to capital allowances, research and development tax breaks, cuts to stamp duty and business rates, and planning reforms – followed later by cuts to customs rates, VAT, excise and national insurance that will turn them into operational free ports. If the Tories pull this off, they will use capitalism to deliver for the regions what the Left tried and failed to achieve for years with central planning – and solidify their electoral success in the “Red Wall” regions that gave them a landslide majority in 2019.

This is the smart, supply-side Brexit that offers ideas of the kind that imaginative, positive thinkers have wanted to pursue for years – and it gives a sense of the free enterprise economy that Boris Johnson and Mr Sunak want to build.

The rollout of these ideas was delayed by coronavirus, but the economic downturn actually makes them more relevant and necessary, because we cannot have the dead hand of Brussels – or the British state for that matter – restraining our recovery. Almost a generation’s worth of economic change has occurred in a few months; it is a relief that we have a government that recognises the sheer scale of that challenge.

If the Tories get this right, and if they are as bold as possible, then future generations will look back on Brexit as courageous, yes, but also entirely sensible and correct – as a peaceful revolution that transformed Britain into a richer, freer nation.

‘They will use capitalism to deliver for the regions what the Left tried and failed to achieve for years’