EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, first, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Wharton of Yarm on his excellent maiden speech; I also hope that we will work together for many decades. I was delighted to be able to support the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill last week, and I congratulate the negotiating team, led by my noble friend Lord Frost, and the Prime Minister on delivering on his promises.

I focus on a subject that has attracted much commentary from your Lordships—specifically, financial services and, in particular, equity markets. Here, I draw attention to my interests in the register. Many noble Lords observed that the agreement is thin on this subject, and that is true, but I respectfully remind your Lordships that that was also the case when we were still members of the single market. The regulation of equity markets remains largely at a national, not the EU, level, so I was quite surprised to hear some noble Lords arguing that we have somehow lost our negotiating leverage in this area. If we ever had such leverage, we rarely used it, and, although a recent arrival in your Lordships’ House, I cannot recall any fierce arguments, either here or in the other place, when various EU directives, aimed with great precision at the City by our ex-partners in the EU, came into effect over the past decade or so.

As the Minister said, section 6 of the agreement deals with financial services and, specifically,

“reaffirms the integrity of our respective, autonomous equivalence frameworks.”

The joint declaration explicitly sets out an agreement

“to establish structured regulatory cooperation ... with the aim of establishing a durable and stable relationship between autonomous jurisdictions.”

That is a very clear commitment and, by March, an MoU will be agreed on the framework for this co-operation. I agree with my noble friend Lord Hunt that we must think very hard about our own regulatory networks going forward.

Therefore, I conclude that your Lordships will have an opportunity to exhibit similar zeal in defending our interests in our future negotiations in the inevitable debates in this House. I also conclude by, perhaps mischievously, suggesting that debate, rather than directive, proves that we are indeed a sovereign nation again, not the rogue nation that some have claimed.