EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Triesman Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Triesman (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, while it is always a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, I cannot follow many of his colleagues in their sycophantic praise of the Prime Minister. Hagiographic comparisons between him and classical heroes are sad, not least because those making them know perfectly well that they are not true.

The negotiations were candidly amateur, as all professional negotiators know. We greatly overestimated the relative strength and size of our economies, and the negotiations were never balanced. We jumped the gun, starting talks before forming any clear position. We fought tenaciously to adopt positions in negotiation that we have no intention of adopting, at least according to the Government. We were confused, and we certainly confused others. We gave up our key card of trust—our attitude to Northern Ireland demonstrated us to be untrustworthy. We prioritised sovereignty, ill defined as it was, over economic objectives—the price apparently worth paying. The price is a totemic gesture to the Conservative Party, and I do mean totemic, because it was certainly never practical. They should know that economic harm inexorably follows, and leads to sovereign harm.

We were never strategic. Running down the clock, leaving no time to get things right, is not a strategic act of genius; it is self-harm. I describe it as amateur night. I make a positive suggestion: let us make sure that when we negotiate on 80% of our economy—financial services—we do not leave it to the amateurs. The FCA has told us that serious problems are coming across the horizon. Let us bring in the grown-ups: people of calibre such as Mark Carney, the noble Lord, Lord Myners, and Alistair Darling; people who do not need the glorification of comparisons with ancient Greek warriors. Let us do the job properly, not just strike the postures.