Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment

Robin Millar Excerpts

Thursday 20th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Robin Millar (Aberconwy) (Con)]

Tempting as it is to add to the thanks from colleagues who have spoken already or to respond to the many interesting points that have been raised, I will not do that, nor will I make lengthy reference to my constituency. Instead, I would like to offer some hope. I would like to counter the declinist narrative that says the UK is in a bad way, that our prospects are poor, that this Government are doing the wrong things to the wrong people, making ill-advised decisions about the company we keep, all for the wrong motives, and that things will continue to go downhill. I disagree. I think that that is selective at best, and misrepresentation and falsehood at worst.

The fact is that the UK has a great past and prospects of a greater future—incidentally, points with which I know Sir David would have agreed wholeheartedly. The evidence is that we are doing many of the right things. We are building important links for the best of reasons from strong foundations. The world is increasingly unstable—a point the Defence Secretary himself made recently—and yet our system has outlasted others and adapted to worse. This speech is about the importance of our Union—the most successful political union in history—and why it has worked, why it matters now and why it is the foundation for our future.

Let us consider these foundations. We benefit from a helpful geography, temperate climate and strategic location. The seas have acted as both barrier and connector to the rest of the globe. Internally, connections and infrastructure of canals, road and rail have made us stronger as we have traded among one another. Our system of common law offers an unparalleled environment for the flourishing, testing and implementation of ideas. Contrast that with restrictive regulatory approaches that seek to predict and control.

We still have in our society a culture of policing by consent, albeit a much tested one. We enjoy safety in our streets and, of course, the security and fiscal firepower that comes with being the fifth or sixth—depending on who we believe—largest economy in the world. We stand here today as inheritors of these great assets of a system that is stable and provides for smooth transition of power, despite considerable test from without and within. What part of us could have endured what we have been through as a whole on its own or achieved what we have together on its own?

Of course, these foundations include our identity—who we are and what we think. Values are not a recipe or menu, and truth is not some kind of sushi bar conveyor of ever changing delicacies that pass before us. Truth, too, does not change. What, then, have we struggled for and fought over? Are these not the things we value? Where have been the acts of courage, beauty, genius and tragedy to secure our freedoms, establish democracy, promote fairness, inspire hope and vision and protect our borders, for without them, what are we? We have built institutions on these things. A cenotaph in every village speaks of the ultimate sacrifice paid for shared endeavours.

I am conscious that by-elections are happening today. They speak to the great system of checks and balances we have put in place to secure the things that we value. Here I note the big-heartedness of Union thinking. It has to make room for those who do not want to be part of it. Contrast that with the self-diminishing purity spiral of other ways of thinking. The Union must embrace the difficulties that come with that sense of inclusion. To exclude is to deny itself.

Is our story not one of different parts coming together at different times, for different reasons and in different ways? Do our own personal stories not also reflect this? Is this Britishness we have by merit of being thrown together on a small set of rocks on the periphery of Europe? The stories we each carry speak of this. My mother was a naturalised British citizen; I was born in Wales, and I am a proud Welshman and proud to be British. When we look at the demographics, we find that one in eight Scottish, one in five Welsh and one in nine Northern Irish people live in another part of the UK. Is not the story of the Union simply a collection and weaving together of our own stories—a cord of many, many strands that is not easily broken and with a strength that cares?

When covid fell, 14.6 million jobs were saved through vital furlough and self-employment support. This Government acted. Two million people—I repeat, 2 million —were added to universal credit in seven days. Nothing else like that has been seen on earth. We now have energy support, tailored and with a price cap, estimated at £78 billion.

What then for those links? Where do they take us? Here I confess a concern, because I support our democratically established devolution and institutions, but our Union is no federal construct. The unintended consequence of devolution has been to replace covenants with contracts, trust with transactions and nurturing relationships with burgeoning regulation. Who of us would manage our own relationships in the way we approach devolution? Sadly, it has facilitated institutional capture. Devolution has become for some a tower that must be built ever stronger and ever higher. That does allow us to see further, but it takes the occupants no closer to the promised land they seek.

Looking outwards beyond our shores, we have proved, for example in the Commonwealth, our ability to form, deepen and maintain working relationships. Countries seek our help and heed our advice, and today we are respected around the world. We have the world’s fourth-largest diplomatic network, with 281 posts in 178 countries; we are a member of the United Nations Security Council and the G7. Our system of common law, which I have already mentioned, is emulated and is being implemented around the world. Now, as a result of this Government, we are the only country on Earth to have free trade deals with the two biggest trading blocs: the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership and the European economic area.

Of course, we are also standing up to Russia. I did not want to lead on this, but we have the fourth best-funded military and we lead a coalition of 38 countries in the Gulf, ensuring the safe passage of goods and fuel through that stretch of water. In time of domestic crisis, we mobilised 23,000 members of our armed forces for the covid support force in every part of the UK.

Such foundations have built strong relationships for us, and what have we done with them? A favourable environment has helped us to establish a history and tradition of manufacturing and innovation. The connections that are around us have made us a force in international trade, delivered one of the world’s largest economies and established London as a leading global city.

In my recent speech on artificial intelligence in this Chamber, I highlighted the risk of a regulatory reproach to that industry. UK common law, by contrast, fosters immense opportunity. The right environment for the most exciting technologies is here. In the life sciences, we have again seen that a regulatory approach has a chilling effect: the EU clinical trials directive stopped 25% of trials and doubled approval times, and the European Medicines Agency takes twice as long to approve cancer drugs as the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Instead, in this country, because of the actions of this Government, we are seeing pharmacology investments through the likes BioNTech and Grail, and the potential to unleash UK Biobank and the 100,000 Genomes Project. Through genetic engineering, the potential productivity gains for farmers within a generation are staggering. In fact, when it comes to research and development, four of the top 10 world universities are here in the UK. Unencumbered by a €2 trillion EU bail-out, we have been able to invest a further third in our own R&D, raising it to a record £39.8 billion.

I have been deliberately provocative in some of those illustrations, Mr Deputy Speaker, and some of them are contested, but that makes my next point: the opportunity—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

Order. Before you do that, could you finish by 3.50 pm, please? I am introducing an eight-minute limit.

[Robin Millar]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I was going to say that the opportunity to contest those ideas and the crucible for doing so is here in the UK.

What then of the future? Leadership is looking within, looking up and looking ahead. We have done that through the darkness of world wars, conflict and suffering. We have responded to the threats of a pandemic and war in Ukraine. We have led. We have seen beyond the boundaries of the EU that we were constrained by.

The first part of any plan for this country must therefore be a collective response, together as a United Kingdom. We are not preparing for the last war or for old customers; AUKUS and the CPTPP are all about responding to the future and the opportunities and threats there. What better testimony is there than the fact that we are the most attractive country in the G20 amongst 18 to 24-year-olds?

A nation does not define itself through introspection, but through action. As we emerge from the storms of recent years, we British find ourselves once again the authors of our own distinctive story. As with the Britain of previous ages, the story is likely to offer fresh sources of collective pride, beauty and dismay. We will write this together with the values we defend and the words that we speak. I will finish by calling on the Minister to bring the Minister for the Union—the Prime Minister—to this House to lead a debate on the state of the Union, a story that is important for us all to hear.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

There is now an eight-minute limit. Any interventions will eat into the time of the person who is last.