European Union (Withdrawal) Act

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Wednesday 5th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Alex Sobel (Leeds North West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Although I have spoken in more than 100 debates since I entered this House, none has been as important as this one, which will guide the future of this country for generations to come.

Many hon. Members have covered the security implications, but it is worth reflecting on the fact that the agreement makes no mention of Europol and says that the UK would be locked out of EU tools, including the Schengen Information System, European Arrest Warrant and the European Criminal Records Information System when the transition period ends.

The Police Federation, which represents 120,000 rank-and-file officers, said it has “no idea what the policing landscape will look like post 29 March 2019.”

This in and of itself is enough to reject the agreement as presented to us.

The Prime Minister’s deal merely pushes back decisions into the transition and does not even answer what sort of Brexit we will get, and the security arrangements are merely the tip of a Titanic iceberg.

After the Prime Minister gave her statement to the House on 22 November, she said that the post-transition options for the future relationship with the EU were a spectrum. I asked the Prime Minister what her spectrum was and her response was,

“there is a balance between checks and controls and the acceptance of rules and regulations.”

Are any of us any clear on the Prime Minister’s spectrum? No, I can see that we are not.

I believe we have five basic options: a no-deal Brexit; the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement; a renegotiation of the withdrawal deal; membership of the European Free Trade Association and the customs union, or the so-called Norway-plus arrangement; and remaining in the EU.

Everyone understands no deal, in that we leave over 70 international trade deals and the all-Ireland electricity market ceases, with the potential to completely disrupt Northern Ireland’s power supply. The chaos around customs checks puts all goods coming into the country at risk, including food, medicines, fuel and machine parts. The Government’s technical notices make for grim reading, but after passing the amendment of the right hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr Grieve)—my former MP, in fact—last night, we are on the road to asserting the will of the House and avoiding a no-deal Brexit.

The Prime Minister’s deal means no immediate cliff edge. Instead, we would leave the EU and move into a transition period of at least 21 months where we would stay within and would need to update all EU rights and regulations. But what then? Well, the Prime Minister’s non-answer tells us all we need to know. The Government would negotiate a free trade deal that is

“a balance between checks and controls and the acceptance of rules and regulations.”—[Official Report, 22 November 2018; Vol. 649, c. 1131.]

Considering this is all the Government have managed in the last 20 months, I cannot write them a blank cheque. It might not even be a cheque made out to the current Prime Minister, so I cannot and will not support the EU withdrawal agreement when it comes before Parliament next Tuesday.

I have consistently said that I cannot support any option that does not protect jobs by preserving tariff-free, barrier-free, frictionless trade with the rest of Europe. Any option should retain current employment and consumer rights and environmental standards, and at least keep pace with Europe in the future. There should also be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and Spain, and our sovereign territory on Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus. Let us remember that the single market accounts for 25% of global GDP and represents Britain’s biggest trading partner. I believe that only the latter three options I outlined earlier can achieve this.

Yesterday we saw the Government lose three votes including, historically, on the contempt motion. The confidence is visibly draining from the Government, whose majority has always been built on a billion promises. If the Prime Minister cannot pass this “take it or leave it” deal, this House will call time on her. There is an opportunity for another Government to negotiate a deal built on adopting higher regulatory, environmental and labour standards. If we have higher standards and regulatory alignment, our deal will look totally different from the second-rate agreement that we have been asked to vote on.

For us to enjoy the same access rights and benefits of the European single market without having to negotiate a whole new treaty, we could apply for membership of the European Free Trade Association and be part of the European economic area. This could be completed in a fairly short space of time. However, there is no customs union for EFTA members. If we wanted seamless trade and no tariffs for goods originating outside the UK but being sold into the EU, we would need a new customs union. Given that it is not possible to be both in EFTA and the customs union, we would secure a derogation from the EFTA convention in order to facilitate the new EU-UK customs union. This honours the question in the referendum, which simply said:

“Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”

Well, we will not be a member of the European Union if we are a member of EFTA.

Finally, we could simply remain in the EU. Consider all that we have learnt since 24 June 2016. We have learnt that negotiating a deal that is better than the one we have now is effectively impossible; that the queue of countries in Whitehall to ask for trade deals has been oddly missing; and that Vote Leave broke electoral law, overspending by hundreds of thousands of pounds, with Cambridge Analytica employees admitting they used illegal data harvesting techniques. Considering all that, should not people be given the chance to think again?

If there was another vote on whether to stay or leave, I would vote to remain, just as I did in 2016, because there is no better deal for the United Kingdom. I will vote to reject this agreement. If there is an opportunity to vote to renegotiate, join EFTA or have another vote on EU membership in the parliamentary procedures that we are going to undertake after we inevitably vote down the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement, I will vote for any and all of these. I will not vote for the Prime Minister’s blank cheque withdrawal agreement, and I will oppose a no-deal Brexit with every fibre of my being.