85% of votes cast in the 2017 UK General Election were for parties which committed to abide by the Referendum result and implement BREXIT in their manifestos.
It is therefore more than regrettable that many in this place have devoted all their energies since to promoting worst case scenarios rather than respecting the people.
UK-EU negotiations have followed a staged process which was known and understood from the outset, but some choose to misrepresent this as time wasted.
Many of the same people have used what was agreed long before the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement as an excuse for opposing it now.
The Irish Border issue is important, but the legal text is clear that both parties want to avoid the use of the backstop and that Article 50 cannot establish a permanent relationship. The EU themselves have made it very clear that they do not want a post-Brexit UK to remain in extended Customs Union and Single Market membership.
However, the real deal negotiated by the Prime Minister and her team, which required agreement with 27 others, is about very much more than this.
As the Prime Minister states, this deal delivers on the result of the referendum – taking back control of our money, borders and laws, while protecting jobs and our national security.
Although you wouldn’t know it from the sensationalist debate about - and coverage of the EU Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration, the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal includes a range of safeguards, including:
- Agreed arrangements that will let data continue to flow freely.
- Trade arrangements for gas and electricity.
- Strong rules to keep trade fair, so neither the UK nor EU can unfairly subsidise their industries against the other.
- A comprehensive Air Transport Agreement and comparable access for freight operators, buses and coaches.
- Agreed arrangements so we can take part in EU programmes like Horizon and Erasmus.
- A co-operation agreement with Euratom, covering all the key areas where we want to collaborate.
- And continuing Visa-free travel to the EU for holidays and business trips.
At least Plaid Cymru, as co-authors of the joint January 2017 Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru White Paper, “Securing Wales’ Future”, are honest about their intention to betray the result of the EU Referendum, despite Wales voting to leave the EU.
In contrast, Labour Ministers and backbenchers claim to respect the outcome of the Referendum, whilst promoting what amounts to Brexit in name only.
Although some 60% of UK Labour constituencies voted to Leave, including 59% to leave in Wrexham and 56% in Flintshire, the Labour First Minister has repeatedly advocated the plan detailed in the joint Labour/Plaid Cymru White Paper for continued UK membership of the EU Customs Union and Single Market.
This would mean no control of our borders, our trade and our laws, and a never-ending UK financial contribution to EU coffers. In other words, a total betrayal, by a Welsh Establishment determined to thwart Brexit, which treats the people with arrogant contempt.
However, mirroring Mr Corbyn’s terminology, the First Minister has now slipped in the meaningless term “a Customs Union” instead of “the Customs Union” – knowing full well that the Prime Minister is committed to a Customs arrangement, but that whatever terminology we use for this, it is currently irrelevant in terms of the withdrawal deal.
It is technically correct for Labour and Plaid Cymru to state that the Withdrawal agreement does not guarantee the UK would stay in a customs union, but that’s only because the Withdrawal agreement is not designed to address our future Trade relationship with the EU.
Although the withdrawal agreement says the EU and UK have a common objective of a close future relationship which will “build on the single customs territory”, this is for negotiation during the Transition Period agreed as part of the Prime Minister’s deal.
In the real world, the UK reclaimed number one position in the World Soft Power league table last year.
When people voted to leave the EU, they were voting for control.
This is not about a soft Brexit or a hard Brexit, but an open Brexit, one that ensures that the UK is still turned outwards, and more engaged with the world than ever before.
It remains overwhelmingly in the interests of both the UK and EU to agree a friendly free trade deal.
If we can just get it right, then we can end up with a deep and special partnership with the EU, a strong European Union buttressed by and supporting a strong and global UK — and still trading and co-operating closely with each other, too.