EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Baroness Morris of Bolton Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morris of Bolton (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it is a pleasure, almost four years after we first began debate on the famous Article 50 in your Lordships’ House, to say a few words on the agreement reached between the United Kingdom and the European Union in the final days of 2020, an agreement that fulfilled our promise to the electorate and which, as my noble friend Lord Wharton of Yarm said in his splendid maiden speech, leaves us free to forge our own future. I thank my noble friend the Minister for his thoughtful opening to this debate.

The process of disentangling ourselves from the institutions of the EU after so many years was never going to be easy, but the job must have been made all the more difficult with every step being queried, challenged and second-guessed. I pay enormous tribute to the patience and negotiating skills of all those involved in delivering this agreement. As one of the Prime Minister’s trade envoys, I am privileged to witness on a regular basis the ingenuity and quality of our companies and institutions, and the professionalism and expertise of our trade officials. I believe that, whether we had achieved a trade deal or not, our companies would have adapted and flourished.

I far prefer that we have negotiated this unique deal with no tariffs or quotas, but, as we heard from my noble friend Lady Warsi, there is still much practical detail to be addressed. For me and, I suspect, most people, including our friends in the wider world, the test of a good Brexit deal was always going to be the kind of relationship we could build with our European friends and neighbours, especially in these frightening and testing times for us all. Last week at Second Reading of the European Union Bill, my noble friend Lord Maude of Horsham said that there is now an opportunity to take our relationship forward in a better spirit than when we were in the EU. I could not agree more, and I applaud my right honourable friend the Prime Minister for delivering a deal that does just that.