EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Carlile. He certainly knows a thing or two about security, and I associate myself entirely with the concerns he raised. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Wharton of Yarm on his excellent maiden speech.

Like many others, I am pleased and relieved that we have a deal and that we have averted the nightmare of a no-deal disaster, as I always believed we would. To that extent, of course, I congratulate the Prime Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Frost, and the negotiating team. For goods there are to be no tariffs and no quotas, and that is good news indeed. I believe that the deal also supports peace in Northern Ireland, which for me was fundamental. The deal in that regard has, of course, been welcomed by the European Union and particularly by Ireland.

However, there are still important issues that need to be addressed. Like my noble friend Lord Bridges and many others, I believe strongly that we need to map out what we as the United Kingdom are going to do—I very much agree with my noble and learned friend Lord Garnier on the importance of retaining the union; we should not take it for granted. We are geographically European. How do we now work alongside Europe for the future? That is fundamental to this debate.

There is a large hole in the agreement with regard to services, which represent 80% of our economy. I am very concerned that we need to avoid haemorrhaging of our superiority here in trading terms within Europe.

Like others, I am also concerned about Erasmus. We have a dog’s dinner, not to say a pig’s breakfast, where universities in Ulster are still participating and their fees will be paid through Dublin. That represents a danger to the union too.

I am relieved that we have an agreement, but much still needs to be done.