EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Birt Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Birt (CB) [V]]

My Lords, in 1945, Clement Attlee seized the moment and created the welfare state. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher rose to the challenge of superinflation, industrial strife and a broken economy.

In 2021, we face equally mighty challenges. As a nation, we are divided as rarely before. The union is under threat not only in Scotland but now, I suspect, with its new and unique status, in Northern Ireland too. Our public services are still depleted from the impact on the public sector of the 2008 financial shock. After a half-century of underinvestment, we have the worst transport infrastructure of any developed economy. We face massive housing shortages in both the public and private sectors. We have skill shortages at every level of the economy, from fruit pickers to roofers to data scientists. Yet the OBR’s November pull-together of the views of external forecasters such as the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD indicated that, with a trade deal of the kind just signed, the UK can expect a long-term reduction in GDP of 4% versus the current trend. Moreover, the pandemic will leave us with a debt mountain to clear, and we face the monumental task of meeting our net-zero goal.

We now need to put Britain back on its feet again. That will need considered, grounded, long-term policies, engagement and consensus building. That will all take a very long time indeed. We are in for a long haul.