Let’s get on with it and deliver the only solution
IN the winter of 2015, then Prime Minister David Cameron went to the EU with his negotiation checklist. I looked at what he was asking for and know that it didn’t represent the fundamental change in the EU-UK relationship that I wanted to see.
I wanted to see the UK stop spending hundreds of millions of pounds a week on the EU, I wanted to see us set our immigration policy in the UK, I wanted British lawmakers making our laws and being held to account by the electorate for them.
I also wanted to see the UK set its own trade policy for the first time in decades. So, I campaigned for the UK to leave the EU.
Nearly three years later, after a referendum in which the country voted to leave, and following a general election which confirmed the country’s desire to do so, we have a deal which delivers on the leave vote. Time and time again, voters told me on the doorstep that we should take back control.
And that is what the Prime Minister’s deal does. We are taking back control of our money, meaning no more vast sums being paid to the EU. We will have control of our borders again, ending free movement. And crucially, and more importantly to many, we will have control of our laws, ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
I have no doubt that if this deal was presented as our Leave option at the start of the referendum campaign it would have received huge support. Which is why so many of the people who were instrumental in the Vote Leave campaign support it.
I am also greatly worried that if we don’t deliver this deal that Brexit could be delayed, distorted, or even stopped. Since the Brexit vote, Labour have obfuscated and tried to pretend that they support Brexit. Now the mask slips.
Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell has this week confirmed that Labour considers a second referendum “inevitable”.
Don’t be fooled. This is not a party being dragged kicking and screaming to this conclusion.
This is the preferred outcome for a party that is desperate to get its hands on the levers of power by any means necessary.
They believe they can secure more support taking an anti-Brexit stance than by honouring the outcome of the referendum.
It’s cynical but it might work, if we don’t seal the deal now.
On Monday, April 1 next year, I want the Prime Minister to stand at the despatch box and be able to say: “As of 11pm on the 29th of March, the United Kingdom has formally left the European Union.”
Voting against this deal risks that.
Let’s not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Let’s get on with the job we’ve been instructed by the British people to do.
Let’s deliver Brexit.