Yesterday was ‘Independence Day’ – the 7th anniversary of the vote for Brexit.
Of course, Brexit has worked. You just need to cut through all the activism posing as journalism, continued ‘Project Fear’ farcical claims and look at the hard facts that are being deliberately obscured or unreported.
First, we have achieved Democratic Freedom. We run our own country again and do not have an overbearing, unsympathetic, federalising embryo Superstate force dictating to us over foreign affairs, trade, fishing, farming, animal welfare, VAT (which is an EU tax we could scrap now; not just remove the tampon tax), corporation tax, a legal system based on a Continental Roman Law at odds with our common law, defence procurement, medicines or the environment.
We run our own country again and do not have an overbearing, unsympathetic, federalising embryo Superstate force dictating to us…
We can run things better or worse – but it’s our decision. It is why the UK was able to lead the world with the first Covid vaccine, free of EU committee control.
It means too we have control of our own borders with no more EU free movement or Euro 20,000 fines for refusing to take immigrants in numbers specified by EU quotas, which Poland is currently initiating a Referendum to stop.
We can cut non-EU immigration right back – that is a sovereign decision whereas free movement was a rigid given. The post Brexit points-based work visas now treat everyone equally.
Second, Economic Freedom – The UK has actually outperformed Germany economically since Brexit: the UK was the best growing economy in the Global G7 jet set the last two years, and we still are staving off recession now. But, in addition, we now have the freedom to scrap or amend 700,000 pages of EU laws that have been imposed on the UK – a Nelson’s Column of EU Red Tape. As an MEP, I saw UK interests were so often steamrollered by EU interests despite our opposition, so there is a rich vein to mine.
Sadly, the Government has failed to go very far on EU deregulation, by reining back 4,000 EU regulations to cut to just 600. Yet, we have avoided having to impose another 7,391 EU laws from Brexit to March 2023. At a practical level, this has brought cheaper motor insurance and easier HGV driver regulation.
Scrapping just one of these EU laws – the Solvency II directive abolishing an excessive capital requirement – could inject £100 billion extra investment into the British economy, into infrastructure and green projects.
Add to this the ability to create tens of thousands of new jobs through British freeports spread around the UK and now active, allowing low tax regimes for import/export businesses. These are heavily restricted in the EU and some MEPs want to ban them altogether.
Free of the Single Market, Brexit is encouraging significant ‘reshoring’ of major manufacturing – from massive battery gigafactories for Electric Vehicles through to Britten-Norman returning manufacture of the highly successful Islander aircraft back to the Isle of Wight from Eastern Europe. The switch from inefficient EU CAP farming subsidies mainly benefiting large landowners is also welcome: with more emphasis on aid to smaller farmers and natural habitats; whilst we do have an improved fishing catch if not enough.
Third, Trading Freedoms. UK exports to the Rest of the World (RoW) are surging post Brexit; and we are currently exporting 26.6% more to the EU than we were before Brexit; whilst German exports are down 14% to us since 2016. The UK has signed up new trade deals whilst EU’s trade deals stall. I spent 10 years as an MEP on the International Trade Committee.
Whilst the EU’s deals with Australia and New Zealand I worked on are stuck because of EU protectionism – the UK’s are not only negotiated but operational. We traded £14 billion more to the Commonwealth alone last year, with the new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) with 56 countries saving £770 million import costs. On services, 80% of our economy, the UK sits second in the world in the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index.
Cutting 5% off British cars and whisky going to Australia is valuable, and consumers benefit from cheaper food. Just wait until Britain signs a trade deal with India, which I worked on, to slash stratospheric 150% tariffs on luxury items such as cars, clothing and whisky; not to mention the UK joining the biggest future trade zone in the world – not the EU, but the CP Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and these benefits will rocket.
Four, Financial Freedom – the freedom for London and Edinburgh to develop more as global financial services hubs without excessive intervention EU regulation. The Government’s Edinburgh Reforms set out a fresh financial framework to make the UK the world’s most innovative and competitive global financial centre. Statistics confirm the UK did not lose 3 million jobs as Remainers claimed, nor has there been a net loss of financial jobs, but London still dominates Europe and ranks as the world’s second largest financial centre.
Meanwhile, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is booming into the UK, including biotech regulation attraction, and can be seen as an endorsement of Brexit Britain. We can now reform EU inherited regulation such as MIFID 2 which damages UK investors.
Fifth, Diplomatic Freedom, despite the desperate warnings of EU apologists in the Foreign Office, the UK has growing international respect and presence, enhancing British Global Security. Britain is only second in world to the USA in terms of soft power, and has moved up in terms of Governance from 9th to 4th in world rankings. The establishment of the important geopolitical alliance of AUKUS (Australia-UK-USA) has already led to significant defence orders, such as for UK-built submarines and frigates. The bonds with the Anglosphere and Commonwealth are being strengthened.
Free of the committee groupthink of the EU, the UK nimbly led the world in the defence of Ukraine, whilst Germany put cheap gas before principle and ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden lived up to his name. Boris Johnson deserves a street named after him in Kiev. What was that about Brexiteers hating Europe?!
Free of the committee groupthink of the EU, the UK nimbly led the world in the defence of Ukraine, whilst Germany put cheap gas before principle and ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden lived up to his name.
Sixthly and finally, Funding Freedom. It was Jacob Rees Mogg who found that had we remained in the EU we would have had to pay an eyewatering £191 billion extra towards the 2 trillion Euros Covid programme. The gross figure of £19 billion a year in membership fees is now much greater due to the EU’s Superstate ambitions for an EU Army and EU border force. We are still paying under the deal a few billion a year but that should soon end.
We should not only be celebrating real Brexit freedoms but be grateful for avoiding the increasingly undemocratic, centralised, expensive and dictatorial EU we escaped from just 7 years ago.
David Campbell Bannerman is a former MEP and Chairman of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO).
