European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

Lord Teverson Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow an excellent speech by the noble Baroness, Lady Liddell, but it is not a pleasure for me to be speaking in this debate about withdrawal from the European Union. That we are having it is even less of a pleasure for my daughters, who are in their 20s.

The noble Viscount, Lord Ridley, mentioned a lot of economic indicators. Some are true, but a whole host of others are not anything as good as that. The Government’s forecast for the future of the economy has not been good, as we have seen in yesterday’s report. But that is nothing compared to the hit that we have taken to our international stature and how we have been seen abroad diplomatically through how we have handled these negotiations. I weep at how we have portrayed ourselves to the international community in terms of this nation’s ability. This nation should not just be leading Europe, as the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, said, but be standing proud in the United Nations—as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council—and in all the other bodies that we are still in. We have devalued ourselves. That is not good when we start to enter international negotiations on trade.

One of the best pieces of advice I have heard recently was, “Never tell a computer that you’re in a hurry”. Many noble Lords know why. That is nothing in comparison with when you are in trade negotiations. We are facing some of the most hard-nosed and experienced people there are, and the fact that we are in a hurry, desperate and concerned to get a deal quickly will mean that we seriously erode our negotiating ability. That sincerely worries me.

The Bill deals with bringing the acquis on to the British statute book. One of the areas that is missing in the acquis is economic and social cohesion. It is in Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and states that one of the missions of the European Union is to reduce disparities between regions within the EU. When I was a Member of the European Parliament, I was proud of ensuring, through facts and rational argument, that my part of the world—Cornwall—received some of the highest levels of European intervention. That has enabled, among other things, Cornwall to have a highly successful university campus that has done the economy a great deal of good, yet I do not see that aspiration moving across. One of the great things about European economic and social cohesion policy is that it is based on facts, evidence and rules. As we move forward with a different regional policy in the UK and in England in particular, my fear is that we will move back to the old ways—so political influence, lobbying and the other areas of pork-barrel politics will mean that the right decisions about regional aid will not be made and the disparities within England and the United Kingdom will not be met fully by the future regime. I want those values, that guidance and that evidence-based method of deciding where regional aid goes brought on to the UK statute book through the Bill.

I am also concerned about the environmental side. Yesterday, we debated the 25-year environmental plan. I was delighted that it states that the “polluter pays” principle is important. I congratulate the Government on including that in the plan, but let us bring the precautionary principle into the Bill. The fantastic 1987 Brundtland report Our Common Future started to change the way we looked at sustainable development globally, and it was reinforced at the Rio conference in 1991. This principle is in European statute, and it is important for our environment that we transfer it. I hope the Government will bring forward suitable arrangements on animal sentience within this Bill, not in a following agriculture Bill.

Finally, the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, mentioned the report of the energy sub-committee of the European Union Committee that I chair. Every bit of evidence that we had from the sector said that we should remain, if possible, in the internal energy market. That will be very difficult if we are not inside the single market, but it is something that we need to find a way to do, otherwise our energy prices, energy trading and energy security will not be where they need to be. Euratom—an organisation we did not even need to withdraw from—was not on the referendum question paper, and there we need to be very clear that we have continuity between our current membership, through transition to our future relationship, otherwise our whole nuclear programme will be threatened.

Coming back to our international reputation, I was asked by someone on the other side of the argument why everybody always seems to accept what Mr Barnier says and not what the Government say when we are in negotiations. I believe we have had an abysmal record on negotiations, as I have said to the House before, because everything that Mr Barnier says seems to come true, while everything that the Government say disappears in smoke. That is, once again, damaging to our international reputation. I hope through this Bill, somehow, we can start to mend that.