Bosworth MP backs May Brexit deal in crunch vote

BOSWORTH MP David Tredinnick spoke in the House of Commons this week in favour of backing Theresa May’s EU Brexit deal ahead of the crunch vote on Tuesday night.

The Conservative MP said the proposal delivered what the people voted for.

The Bosworth constituency voted in the referendum 60-40 to leave the EU.

Speaking after his Commons speech he said: “Nothing offered by the EU was ever going to be perfect or satisfy everyone’s expectations of Brexit but the Government’s deal delivers on the resounding referendum result here in Hinckley and Bosworth and the country as a whole.

“The deal ensures we take back control of our laws, our borders and our money, and that we safeguard our security and protect local jobs.

“Businesses across Hinckley and Bosworth and the Midlands want and need the certainty that the Government’s deal will bring, securing jobs and prosperity for residents. Many local people have written to me concerned about their jobs and their future prospects, and those of their families.

“My overriding consideration continues to be that Brexit is delivered and that an uncertain political situation does not allow individuals who fail to respect the outcome of the people’s vote in June 2016 to contrive a second referendum or engineer a situation that would stop Brexit altogether.”

The vote was due to take place as The Hinckley Times went to press on Tuesday night.

In the house the MP mentioned Hinckley firms during the debate on the European Union (Withdrawal) Act.

The MP said to the House of Commons: “I feel very strongly that we must respect what our constituents have told us; we cannot have it any other way.

“I have to tell the House that in my Hinckley and Bosworth constituency we make things. It has the largest supplier of tractors worldwide, Caterpillar, with sales of $45 billion—the first UK factory was set up in Hinckley in 1952, and it now has over 1,500 employees—and 72% of its inbound components come from the EU, while 31% of outbound sales go to the EU. JJ Churchill, a supplier of RollsRoyce, is in my constituency: fans are assembled into engine parts. I am told that there are dire problems if we do not have proper arrangements for leaving. MIRA, with its autonomous vehicles technology, is also in my constituency, as is DPD, the biggest parcel sorting operation in Europe, which has a depot the size of 14 football pitches and ships 80,000 items per hour, 20% of which go to the EU.

“We have three critical problems: the World Trade Organisation option does not work; just-in-time is critical because we do not have warehousing capacity; and agriculture would be ruined with 73% tariffs.

“On the backstop, colleagues should listen to the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon), who is supporting the Government on Brexit. She has warned of the dangers facing Northern Ireland’s businesses and agriculture, and we know that that is also true for agriculture in England.

“The biggest problem for Northern Ireland will not so much be a hard border, which is impossible to construct and enforce but the catastrophic effect on its businesses.

“I am supporting this deal, and I believe that there will be conciliation if we do not get it through on Tuesday. There will be some form of conciliation and we will get it through in the end.”