European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

Lord Blackwell Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Blackwell (Con)]

My Lords, while noting my business interests as set out in the register, I would like to make it clear that I will be speaking in this debate and at later stages of the Bill in a purely personal capacity as a Member of this House.

Listening to the debate, I note that many views have, of course, been expressed around the House on the merits of what we are embarked upon. Noble Lords will know that I was, and remain, a supporter of the argument that Britain had no option but to leave the European Union as it progressed towards political and economic union. Despite what the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, said, after the Lisbon treaty we were not signed out of that. However, those arguments are now behind us. Article 50 has been triggered and I urge all noble Lords, whatever their past views, to now come together to ensure that we make the best of the future that we will now have outside the European Union. I was pleased to hear that view echoed in many contributions from around the House.

I will make two points based on what I have heard. First, as we debate the Bill, it is important that we promote a positive and optimistic view that encourages the nation to seize the opportunities ahead of us. The decision to leave was not, for me—or for most people, I believe—primarily an economic equation. But while we of course hope that the European Union will agree to an arrangement that upholds its principles of free trade with our large, neighbouring but independent economy—for its benefit as well as ours—we should be confident and optimistic about our ability under any scenario to compete and prosper as an open, global trading nation in a world where growth will be driven increasingly by the faster-growing new economies around the world. I therefore ask those who are unhappy about our decision to leave to cast aside their pessimism and avoid overstating the negatives, for the greatest damage we can do to our UK economy is to undermine confidence by talking ourselves down, both domestically and in the view we project to overseas investors.

Much is made of economic forecasts, but economic forecasting is not a science, and the reality is that the output of economic models largely reflects the assumptions fed into them. The truth is that the UK economy has been and remains resilient. As my noble friend Lord Ridley pointed out, we did not plunge into a recession in 2016, and strong economic growth continues to defy the economic pessimists. Unemployment has not soared; instead we have 400,000 more people in work than a year ago and the lowest rate of unemployment since the 1970s.

As we look forward we should recognise that we will continue to have a huge competitive advantage as a nation in our culture of innovation, our legal and political systems, our language, our flexible labour market, our strong and high-value service sector and our global network—not least with the somewhat neglected but fast-growing Commonwealth countries. We should see those countries as our gateway to the future growth economies, not dismiss them as a relic of the past. All these factors will be increasingly important advantages for the UK as we move into a new era where the basis for economic success is transformed by the revolution in digital technology and artificial intelligence. These are areas where we in the UK are already building a strong entrepreneurial base. Our success in managing this economic transformation will have a far greater impact on our future employment and living standards than the margin of error on current economic forecasts. It is a much more important area to focus on.

As I said, our future as a nation is not just about economics; let us talk positively about the opportunities of our vision for Britain as an open, outward-looking global trading nation. If we view everything from the negative mindset that we are engaged just in damage limitation, we will never inspire people to seize those opportunities and will do our country down.

Secondly, we in this House can also do our bit to remove uncertainty and build confidence by giving the Bill, which the other place has approved, a fast and supportive passage through this House. I recognise that many noble Lords have expressed concerns about the provisions for secondary legislation that will enable EU law to be transcribed into our own legal base. While it is clearly right for these powers to be scrutinised, we need to be realistic about the scale and urgency of the task. The powers are rightly circumscribed by a two-year sunset clause.

I do not accept the argument that some make that it is somehow less democratic for a UK Minister in an elected Government to lay a statutory instrument for our Parliament to approve than it is for that law to be imposed by European institutions that can override the UK Government and Parliament. I have sat for periods on your Lordships’ committees looking at delegated powers and the merits of statutory instruments, and I have a high level of confidence that our process of scrutiny—with the additional procedures suggested by my noble friend Lady Evans—will be able to hold Ministers and civil servants to account.

I therefore strongly support the passage of the Bill through our House and I urge other noble Lords, whatever their past convictions, to join in building confidence in this country’s future success.