European Union (Future Relationship) Bill

Lord Bilimoria Excerpts

3rd reading & 2nd reading & Committee negatived & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 3rd reading (Hansard) & 3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & Committee negatived (Hansard) & Committee negatived (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 30th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bilimoria (CB) [V]]

My Lords, four and a half years after the referendum we have a deal—hallelujah. It is with our biggest partner and our neighbour, our principal economic partner, with 43% of our exports and 52% of our imports. We have achieved this deal in the midst of a pandemic at a time when we have the worst economic crisis in 300 years—our economy is expected to have shrunk by 11% this year and businesses have had nothing short of a nightmare. It is important that we have achieved a zero tariff and zero quota deal with the EU.

There is a lot to be done, as has been mentioned, such as financial services equivalence. The deal is lighter than the EU trade deals with Canada and Japan. The Government need to prioritise a dialogue on equivalence with urgent speed. Next week, regarding the situation management and problem solving with keeping the borders open and moving, if there is disruption, what plans are in place to manage the crisis? Could the Minister reassure us?

Looking forward, Brexit is what we make of it. How do we make the UK competitive and dynamic? How can we boost business investment across our regions and make ourselves a world leader in net zero? How can we continue to be the second or third largest attractor of inward investment in the world and continue to be an open, outward-looking economy with the best of the best capabilities of everything in every field? How do we build on this deal? That will be a priority, including the services sector which makes up 80% of our economy.

I want to thank Michael Gove for his Brexit business task force. That task force will continue to operate over the coming months. I was relieved to hear that the we are going to continue to be members of the Horizon programme. Will the Minister confirm this? However, I am disappointed that we are leaving Erasmus, which has been a phenomenal opportunity for our students; as president of UKCISA I know how good it has been. Will the Minister reassure us that the new Turing scheme will be as good and give our young people a chance straightaway—that there will be no time lag and that opportunity will exist? Much has already been said on security. We need to make sure that we continue to have the security arrangements with the EU that have been so fundamental to us.

Business has proven itself. Even in this time of doom and gloom, we have shown that we can bounce back when given a bit of a chance. I think that now, with this deal, with the AstraZeneca vaccine announced today and mass testing being rolled out, next year is going to be a great opportunity. Britain will be a leader on the world stage, holding the presidency of the G7 and hosting COP 26. We have shown world-class collaboration between our universities and business, as has been shown with Oxford and AstraZeneca, and internationally. This is going to be fantastic—I am very optimistic.

We have rolled over more than 60 trade deals, including with Canada and Japan. The CPTPP opportunities and opportunities to do deals with countries such as the USA and India are enormous. We will continue to be members of BusinessEurope. As president of the CBI, I want to say this: we are now moving to an era of partnership with the European Union. There is an African saying:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”


We are going to go together in prosperity with the EU and the UK working together.