UK-EU Relationship (European Affairs Committee Report)

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Wednesday 20th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I start by congratulating the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, and his whole committee, remainers and leavers alike, who clearly adopted the same attitude in terms of its recommendations. I welcome the report, the concerns expressed in it and its recommendations, many of which reflect those under consideration by my party. One thing that struck me during the debate was that, after many years in the trade union movement, I have learned that trust and confidence are essential ingredients for successful negotiations and the sustainability of any final agreement. My hero, Ernest Bevin, certainly knew that from his dealings in the Foreign Office.

As we have heard, the committee acknowledged that the political relationship between the UK and the EU was in the first two years of the TCA

“characterised by tension and mistrust”.

As the committee states, there has been a welcome “change in mood” around UK-EU relations since the autumn of 2022, particularly since agreement was reached on the Northern Ireland protocol, after months of uncertainty, hostility and, may I say, the madness of Liz Truss suggesting that President Macron may be a foe. Do not underestimate the sort of damage that such language can do. But there is still a broader repair job to do to put the UK and EU relationship on new and strong foundations in political and economic terms. These are our neighbours, partners and allies, and this is our most important economic relationship. We are democracies occupying the same corner of the globe at a time when there is a brutal war of aggression taking place on our continent.

A Labour Government would prioritise building a new, ambitious partnership with the EU and with European member states. As we have heard in the debate, business thrives on certainty. Therefore, we have made clear that under Labour, Britain will not rejoin the EU, the single market or the customs union. I know that that disappoints some people—certainly my Liberal Democrat friends—but we are now in a totally different political context. Revisiting old rows would be a recipe for even more division. Frankly, I think the EU is in a different place too. It wants a stable and constructive relationship, and that is what a Labour Government would build: an ambitious new partnership, based on turning the page on an era of acrimony that this Government have overseen, which has seen trust undermined, co-operation stall and our economy damaged. As my noble friend Lord Liddle said, we know that the Government’s Brexit deal has caused real economic damage. We are well aware of that. Trade has been undermined, exporters have struggled and red tape has grown.

Conservative Governments have done serious damage to our country’s relationships and reputation, and now is the time to restore them. Labour has already laid out some of the ways we will seek to improve the agreement with the EU. As the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, urged and my noble friend Lord Stansgate said, we will use the scheduled renegotiation of the TCA to seek practical and achievable ways to remove barriers and improve opportunities for people and businesses. We have already laid out a number of ways that we could do this. As the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, and my noble friend Lady Ritchie mentioned, negotiating a veterinary and SPS agreement to ease food and agricultural trade would be good for goods going from GB to Northern Ireland but would benefit the whole of the country. We would strengthen mutual recognition of qualifications and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, and the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, said, new flexible labour mobility arrangements for those making short-term work trips and for musicians and artists seeking short-term visas to tour within the EU. We would seek to agree mutual recognition of conformity assessments across sectors, so that our producers no longer need to complete two sets of tests, or two processes of certification. Restoring co-operation, as the new Horizon agreement has done, is vital to ensure co-operation among scientists and ensure our researchers are not missing out on access to funding and vital cross-border research programmes. We also want to maintain Britain’s data adequacy status, meaning our data protection rules are deemed equivalent to those in the EU, helping UK digital services companies compete. We would seek a new foreign policy and security partnership with the EU.

There is a lot we can do to strengthen and deepen the relationship from our position outside the EU. We have said that we want to be pragmatic, not ideological, in our approach. This is not just about the economic relationship with the EU. After the invasion of Ukraine, the whole European political and security order is being looked at again. We have seen the emergence of new forums, such as the European Political Community. We have seen deepening co-operation between European countries on energy, defence and sanctions. If Labour were in government, we would be right at the heart of those discussions, helping to lead them, not on the sidelines. That is why we have proposed a new UK-EU security pact that would cover deeper co-operation on internal security and law enforcement as well as foreign policy and defence.

We want to deepen the security and foreign policy relationships between Britain and the EU, and Europe more broadly. There is no reason why leaving the EU should weaken our security capabilities.

While the EU relationship is crucial, we need to strengthen bilateral relations. Our bilateral ties have been damaged by this Government. Let me mention three crucial ones. We have a long, close and complicated history with Ireland. We are fundamentally connected. We share a border and responsibilities under the Good Friday agreement. Trust has become seriously undermined. This is a crucial relationship for both parties. We are determined to rebuild it.

France is a crucial partner and ally, but our relationship has been in a bad shape. Johnson and Truss did dreadful damage to it. Sunak is trying to repair it but is working from a low base. We will work side by side at the UN. We have close defence co-operation and the E3 format with Germany, working on the Iran deal. We have specific shared interests, such as managing migration across the channel.

Both the UK and Germany have big ambitions around the climate and energy transition, which I believe have been seriously damaged by today’s announcement. Germany intends to invest significantly more in defence, so there is space for greater security, defence and industrial co-operation. Labour will seek a new bilateral treaty with Germany, covering security and defence.

This report will be a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate about how we rebuild and strengthen our relationship, and ensure that we can make the most of leaving the European Union but staying firmly within Europe.