EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Lea of Crondall Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lea of Crondall (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, as a friend of the Wigmore Hall, I add my voice to those who say that there is something quintessentially European about music—classical music in particular and of course, within that, chamber music; artists fly around at very short notice, and that is how it has to be.

I have two main points to make. First, I echo what my noble friend Lord Hain said about the inadequacies of the agreement. He is one of a number of us who, on a cross-Bench basis, are trying to work through how a new type of framework agreement with all the countries of the European Economic Area could be constructed over the next five years to make sure that we are able to play a full part. Unless we do so, we are in a vicious circle on the question of “taking back control”.

Secondly, we have to demonstrate to people in Wakefield and Widnes, and I think we can—we tried to do it when Jacques Delors came to Bournemouth, in 1988, as many noble Lords will remember—that the one way in which we can protect workers’ rights in an increasingly multinational framework is to have a strong European social chapter. That is something we have to present afresh. The reason why the British system is now seen to be anti-worker in many quarters, with the phrase “take back control” ringing that bell, is that 60% of the hostile mergers in Europe in the last few years have been in Britain. We have to go forward and engage people in industry. I was a member of the Bullock committee in the 1970s, and that sort of approach has to come back.