EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Holmes of Richmond Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Holmes of Richmond (Con)]

My Lords, there exists a need and an opportunity—a pressing need and a potentially transformational opportunity. The need is for a border fit for the 21st century. The opportunity is for a digitally enabled free-trade-flowing, free-trade-growing border, delivered by the best of our talent, deploying the best of our technologies. Artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technologies, cyber, the internet of things—we have world-leading proponents for all. All can be allied with a utility trade platform, which would benefit all concerned.

Does the Minister share my rational optimism for the border? Could he say what is happening with the 2025 border strategy? What can be done in 2021 to accelerate these plans? As we saw with Covid, it is possible to accelerate the innovation pathway dramatically. We need to do this urgently with the border. We have the technology: a 21st-century, digitally enabled, free-trade-flowing, free-trade-growing, friction-reducing border right around the UK. At Dover, to update Harold Wilson, we are atop the white cliffs of technology.