EU: UK Membership

Lord Stoddart of Swindon Excerpts

Thursday 24th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stoddart of Swindon (Ind Lab)]

My Lords, I join others in congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, on introducing this debate, and I must congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wrigglesworth, on his excellent and telling maiden speech. In another place, when we were both members of the Labour Party, he and I used to spar about this issue in the Tea Room and elsewhere, but time is short, so I must carry on with the debate.

As some noble Lords will know, I never wanted to join the Common Market and I believe now that it would benefit this country if we left the European Union. Noble Lords will recall that when Harold Macmillan recommended that we join the then Common Market, or the EEC, he said that one of the major reasons was that Britain deserved to have the chill wind of competition. We have certainly had that. Our manufacturing industry, which in 1973 represented 32% of GDP, now represents only 10% of GDP.

The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, referred to a number of firms, the CBI and other organisations that desire at all costs to remain in the European Union and warn of the problems, difficulties and injury that will occur to this country if we left. When I was a Member for Swindon and fighting the referendum, Lord Stokes—he was then Sir Donald Stokes, the chairman of BLMC—wrote to all my constituents and said that if we left the Common Market they would all lose their jobs and the car industry in this country would be destroyed. We decided to remain in and, of course, the car industry was destroyed by our remaining in rather than the reverse. I might add that many of the people who have been quoted were the very people who recommended that we should join the euro. It is fortunate that we did not take their advice then. Perhaps we should not take their advice now.

I must quote some figures. We have heard a lot about the benefits of being a member of the EU, so let us now hear about some of the disbenefits. For a start, we pay a contribution of between £10 billion and £12 billion for the purpose of being a member of the EU. That represents £55 million per day and translates into £150 per person every year. In the case of a family, it is £500 per year per family. We are arguing about £100 on energy bills, yet every year each family pays £500 to belong to the European Union.

We have heard a lot about the trade figures, so let us look at some of them. In 2007, our exports to the European Union were £318 billion. In 2012, they were £278 billion. That means that, instead of becoming a better market for us, Europe is becoming a worse one. In 2007, exports to the rest of the world were £370 billion and in 2012 they were £394 billion, so our trade with Europe is declining but our trade with the rest of the world is going up. I think that we should take note of that. Furthermore, the current adverse balance of trade is going up—shooting up, in fact. In 2007, the deficit was £40.9 billion; in 2012 it was an enormous £83.2 million. So there are figures on the other side, of which we should take notice. The EU is a declining market.

Unfortunately, I do not have time to deal with more aspects, but I want to refer to the democratic deficit. Of course, I would like to see this reduced to nil and for us to get our own democracy and central government back. Unfortunately, that is not easy. As the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said, David Cameron’s attempt to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU was doomed before it began. That really says everything about the centralised nature—almost dictatorship—of the EU.