EU Membership: Economic Benefits

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

What assessment has the Foreign Secretary’s Department made of the length of time that it would take for the British Government to negotiate not only a trade deal with the European Union, but, as he mentioned, all the free trade deals that currently exist between the EU and other parts of the world, so that we can trade with the rest of the world?

[Mr Hammond]

The hon. Gentleman raises a good point, and he will have heard the Prime Minister talking about that very issue only a few moments ago. We can expect that it would take us at least two years to negotiate our exit from the European Union if that was what the British people decided on 23 June. Thereafter, we would have to negotiate a trade deal with the European Union, and then trade deals with the 53 other countries around the world with which the EU has free trade agreements.

There is a small technical hitch, to which I have drawn the House’s attention before: we do not have any trade negotiators, because for the past 40 years the European Union has conducted our trade negotiations for us. It is about not just time but the price that we would have to pay to negotiate that access to the single market from outside. From the evidence of others who have done that, the answer is clear. That price would involve our freedom of movement, acceptance of the entire body of EU regulation, and a whopping sub to boot—all the things that the leave campaign tell us we will escape from—with no say at all in how the rules are made. It would be the worst of all worlds.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman), who described next week’s vote as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”. Having been born in 1974, that is certainly how I see it. I was just one at the time of the last European referendum in 1975. For me, it really is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to plough our future. At that time, my constituency voted to remain in the European Economic Community by 2:1. I have been knocking on doors for several months and have spoken to many of my constituents on the Labour In for Britain bus and at the street stall last Saturday in the centre of Denton, so I am not naive enough to think that that result will be repeated next Thursday. It is likely that when the votes are counted, my constituency will be on the opposite side of the argument.

In common with the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness, I think it would be remiss of me not to explain to those among my constituents who have yet to make up their mind why I believe that a vote to remain in the European Union would offer the best future for the communities that make up Denton and Reddish. I do so by challenging some of the assumptions of the leave campaign. I was unfortunate enough to watch its television broadcast last night, and it seemed to fall into five areas: the £350 million; the NHS; immigration; Turkey; and “take back control of our country”.

Well, we know that the £350 million figure is incorrect because it fails to take into account the rebate that Mrs Thatcher secured or the money we get from the EU for our fishing and farming industries, for science, training, education and urban regeneration.

When it comes to the NHS, I say that money cannot be spent twice. The money that we send to the European Union would almost certainly have to be sent to the EU anyway for us to continue to trade within a free trade area. If we use Norway as an example, we find that it pays more per head of population for its position than we do to be a fully paid-up member of the European Union. That money is not going to be there for the NHS.

As for immigration, if we have a Norwegian or Swiss-style deal—, of course, none of us actually knows what deal the Brexiteers are proposing—we shall have to accept free movement within the single market. And as for Turkey, we have a veto on Turkish membership, because we are at the table with the other 27 European Union member states. If we give that up, we shall have no say, particularly if the rest of the European Union reaches an agreement on Turkish membership, and we are in the free trade area that will then include Turkey.

Finally, there is “taking back control”. I agree, in one sense, with the right hon. Member for Wokingham (John Redwood), who says that being in a free trade area, or a common market, means having to accept common rules and regulations. What kind of control are we taking back when we give up our seat at the table in the Council of Ministers, when we give up our European Commissioner, and when we give up our European parliamentary seats, where precisely those common rules and regulations are being made? That is not taking back control; it is giving up control.

I say this to the constituents of Denton and Reddish: next Thursday, vote remain.