EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shinkwin (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted that we were able to reach such a favourable agreement with the EU, and I applaud the resolve, skill and tenacity of the Prime Minister, my noble friend Lord Frost and, of course, our negotiating team. I echo the optimism expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Butler of Brockwell, in our debate on 30 December last year.

As we look beyond Brexit, and indeed beyond the EU, I hope we can agree that effective trade and co-operation have to be underpinned by values. Of course, with the welcome additional spending that the Defence Secretary recently secured, we can project enhanced military power; but surely we also want to project soft power, especially our faith in parliamentary democracy as a value-based system that delivers both stability and prosperity. The terrifying scenes from Capitol Hill are a reminder that it is not just in Hong Kong that democracy is under assault. The essence of democracy is that, as we all know, it allows for change; it allows the pendulum to swing in accordance with the people’s will as expressed through the ballot box—a fact that, in the case of our own referendum, some in the EU found almost impossible to accept.

When I think of the Muslim Uighurs butchered by the racist, criminal regime of Xi Jinping, or the brave democrats of Hong Kong, whose universal human rights are being brutally quashed by his puppet, Carrie Lam, I hope our approach to trade and co-operation will be about more than just money. In conclusion, ballot boxes, respect for universal human rights and a commitment to intersectional equality should also figure large among our exports, as the best guarantee of global stability and prosperity.