Betrayal – Brexit or broke-it?

Boris Johnson’s attitude towards the Irish Question and the resulting last-minute agreement has come back to bite us, says dairy farmer Ro Collingborn

BRITAIN voted to leave the EU in 2016. We actually left on 31/01/20, some four and a half years later. Negotiations constantly stalled on several issues and crucially the Irish Question.

It seemed impossible to agree on how it could work, with Southern Ireland still in the EU and Northern Ireland still part of Great Britain, which had agreed to exit the EU.

Northern Ireland had voted for Remain, but had to leave to stay with Britain; however, having a hard border with the EU in the South was going to blow up the Good Friday Agreement. Britain didn’t want a border in the North Sea either. It seemed an insoluble problem, and in the end it became part of a rushed agreement to fulfil Boris Johnson’s election promise: “We will leave the EU by the end of 2020”.

The sketchiness of the last-minute agreement meant that it wasn’t properly thought through and has come back to bite us. To get his withdrawal, the PM seems to have made a promise he wasn’t going to honour, and now finds himself between a rock and a hard place, while unsurprisingly the EU is not willing to compromise.

If he does what he signed up to do, Ulster won’t be happy and there could be a return to violence as in the bad times. If he doesn’t, the EU is threatening sanctions to the whole of the UK, which will hurt both sides, but UK farmers the worst. Alarmingly June 30 is the EU’s deadline.

Meanwhile, after dipping his toes in the Cornish sea, the PM has rushed on with trade deals, Australia, Norway, Japan, without the Trade Industry Commission to scrutinise the deals yet in operation. Promises, promises, promises followed by broken promises. No matter that Australia uses 149 pesticides that are banned here, has a deplorable live animal transport trade, suffers from antibiotic resistance in its agriculture and has a bad environmental record.

According to the PM, it’s a wonderful deal and won’t harm our farmers or food standards in any way. Unusually, a whole plethora of bodies like the RSPCA, Sustain and Compassion in World Farming are 100% behind British farmers, wanting our high standards to be maintained and not watered down in the face of international trade deals.

This deal struck with Australia is vital as it sets the standards for future, more significant deals, with the US, New Zealand and South America and paves the way for a Trans-Pacific partnership trade deal. If there are zero trade tariffs for the Aussie deal, these other countries will obviously be demanding them too.

Excepting our MP, I haven’t found any one with a good word to say for it, but the Australians led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Trade Minister Dan Tehan are delighted. They get greatly increased access to our livestock market; for instance beef exports rise from 35 tonnes in year one, to 110,000 tonnes in year 10 and no limits after 15 years. Lamb goes from 25 tonnes in year one, to 75 tonnes by year 10, and then tariff free. Dairy farmers aren’t unscathed either, 24 tonnes of cheese and 20 tonnes of other products can now be imported tariff free, with no limits after five years.

What do we get out of the deal? Both sides have increased travel opportunities for young people, and according to Johnson, we get cheaper wine, swimwear, confectionary, biscuits and ceramics which supposedly saves British households up to £34 million annually. I can’t see many farmers being impressed, but then, except for loyal Tory MPs, who is impressed?

When Johnson was campaigning to become PM, the comment was made that he was good on the broad issues, but poor on detail. This seems to be bearing fruit. Bearing in mind that he’s in danger of losing Scotland in the not-too-distant future, perhaps it would solve his problem if Northern Ireland and Scotland joined together. As they both voted for Remain, the EU would welcome them back en bloc. We, the Brexiteers, could still call ourselves Great Britain – we’d just have to hang onto Wales.

■ Ro Collingborn has been dairy chairman of the Women’s Food and Farming Union, on the Milk Development Council, the Veterinary Products Committee, the RSPCA Council and is currently a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Director

> Ro with a bottle of Australian wine and a bottle of Scotch whisky as the PM continues to rush through trade deals