EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, it seems a long time ago—indeed, it was a long time ago—but I thank the Minister for his original introduction, which was well balanced and got us off to a good start. This has been a rapid-fire debate and, like others, I hope we can find a better way of debating big issues in future, otherwise we will seriously diminish the reputation of our House. Having said that, I thank all speakers—not just for participating today and for their interesting points, but for sticking to the time limits, which was incredible. I join others in welcoming the noble Lord, Lord Wharton of Yarm. I also thank the Library for its very helpful briefing notes on the debate.

The TCA is a complex and extensive agreement and, as others have pointed out, it has a large overhang. Issues such as data adequacy and the urgently needed memorandum on financial services still need to be resolved. There will be ongoing discussions through a partnership council, a plethora of specialist committees and bodies on issues arising, including the Northern Ireland protocol, and a joint parliamentary committee. The TCA provides provisions for a review of the deal every five years.

Every senior politician knows that one of the keys to their success is the ability to shut down debate on issues likely to harm them later. I take it from this debate that the great majority of those who have participated accept the need to draw a line over the recent past and move on, but I wonder whether this will be possible in practice. I suspect that we will be dealing with the aftermath of this deal for some time to come.

The main topics that have been raised today have centred on a few issues, to which I am sure the Minister will respond. We have heard a lot about the problems that have already emerged in the tariff-free and quota-free trade in goods. I look forward to his response to the issues raised on rules of origin and the worrying lack of a deal on diagonal cumulation, which will have a huge impact on manufacturing value chains. We need to hear more from the Minister on why services have largely been ignored and particularly why UK service suppliers will no longer benefit from country of origin principles, mutual recognition or passporting. The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, deserves a full response to his devastating analysis of the fisheries agreement.

Several noble Lords, including former Home Secretaries such as my noble friends Lord Blunkett and Lord Reid, raised law enforcement co-operation and particularly that the UK will lose access to the Schengen Information System and not be a member of Europol. I look forward to the Minister’s response to that. Although it has not been given much attention today, the level playing field agreement includes certain provisions to prevent distortions to trade and investment—for example, through subsidies or reductions of labour or environmental standards. This is a live issue, as it features in amendments to the Trade Bill made this week. Can the Minister explain how this is going to operate in practice and if there will be a need to create new institutions? If so, will that require further changes to the Trade Bill?

It is interesting that the issues that were raised by noble Lords most often in this debate were the departure from the Erasmus+ programme and the inadequacies of the proposed Turing scheme; and, despite assurances given by Ministers, the failure to negotiate a procedure for our creative industry practitioners, particularly musicians and performers, and young entrepreneurs to travel easily in the EU and vice versa. Blaming the EU does not ring true here and I hope that the Minister can give us some real hope that these matters will be resolved.

Finally, I end on the opportunity that some, including the noble Lords, Lord Bridges, Lord Birt and Lord Greaves, and the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, suggested we now have to focus on the future. There may not be agreement on where exactly it might lead us, but we surely can agree that, post pandemic, there is an opportunity to sort out some of the long-standing and apparently intractable problems we face as a country. My list includes using a green recovery to ensure further strengthening of the union, improving productivity, investing heavily in 5G and gigabit-enabled internet for all, improving transport linkages, combining health and social care, modernising the core curriculum, having proper regard for apprenticeships, improving housing standards, and better balancing the immigration policy. This will deal with some of the issues raised during this debate. As was observed by the noble Lord, Lord Holmes of Richmond, we are clearly at a turning point. We should work together as a country to ensure that this is a truly transformative experience.