Joseph Chamberlain, one of my political heroes, said that in “great deeds, something abides”. Perhaps the greatest deed of my parliamentary lifetime was our decision to leave the European Union, made greater still by the fact that it was a decision taken by the British people against the advice of most of their political leaders from across the spectrum. At that moment in time people spoke — and they spoke clearly — about their intentions, and by doing so contradicting the long-standing prejudices of most of the British establishment.
Despite this verdict - just 9 years ago - now the fabric of our national dignity has been traded at the altar of globalist approval as, pursuing his standing amongst Europe’s political elite, the Prime Minister has failed to secure a good deal with the EU. In the House of Commons last week, he conjured an illusion that he had maintained the national interest. In fact, this is more than just a poor deal — it’s a ragbag of uncertain benefits and certain losses.
For the businesses of Lincolnshire — especially our proud farmers and growers — it is a very mixed bag indeed. On the one hand, it includes provisions to potentially ease export burdens. For some local businesses reduced friction at European borders may help cut delays, reduce duplication and so lower operational costs. Having learned from local growers how increased bureaucracy has affected their viability, I have long argued against such unnecessary barriers for local exports.
On the other hand, local farmers tell me that capitulating to EU diktats risks saturating our markets with cheap imports and so forcing them to compete on unequal terms. Such pressure is likely to erode profit margins, destabilise family farms, and endanger the long-term future of British farming here in Lincolnshire and elsewhere.
Certainly, Britian’s fishermen been traded like baubles to buy foreign favour. Our seafarers’ interests have been surrendered in an act so brazen that it borders on parody. Outrageously, the Government has handed over access to Britain's rich coastal waters — a long-standing EU desire — until 2038. This looks less like diplomacy and more a kind of piracy, of which the perpetrators should feel ashamed.
The fundamental flaw in the deal done by Mr Starmer is that Britain will now pay the EU to follow regulations we no longer have a role in shaping — decrees devised in Brussels, ratified in Strasbourg, and imposed on British farmers who are already facing increases in national insurance contributions and the family farm tax. That is not a repatriation of control, but a conditional surrender. Any particular gains must not come at the general expense of national economic resilience, which depends on food security.
As we now drift closer to EU oversight, bankrolling foreign systems we cannot influence and absorbing tariffs we do not determine, it’s unsurprising that many see this, not a as a bold new relationship, but quiet capitulation. Disturbingly the whole package is wrapped in uncertainty as there is no binding legal framework; only vague assurances at foreign discretion. Access to EU e-gates remains unresolved, the youth mobility scheme (or as it is now dubbed ‘experience’) is ill-defined, and legal and illegal migration is no closer to a solution.
What is certain is that the referendum pledge — supported by three quarters of voters, including me, here in South Holland and The Deepings in 2016 — to ‘take back control’ risks being undermined by those more focused on chasing international headlines than serving British households.
