A new Policy Exchange report by Lord Lilley, the Trade Secretary who oversaw Britain’s 1992 entry into the single market, warns that Labour’s disastrous EU ‘reset’ will impose costs exceeding the government’s own estimates of the supposed benefits, all while leaving Britain with no vote over future rule changes. Of which there are guaranteed to be plenty. This is Brussels, after all…
Lilley, who predicted Britain’s entry would boost exports, admits he was “proved wrong”. Over 28 years of membership, UK goods exports to the EU grew by under 1% a year. Exports to the 111 countries traded with on WTO terms grew 87%. Almost four times as much…
The report finds the government’s flagship (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) SPS deal, billed as adding £9 billion by 2040, works out at just £600 million a year. The identifiable costs of alignment already exceed that. Merging the UK and EU emissions schemes is put at £1.1 billion annually, while rejoining Erasmus+ costs up to £810 million, against the Turing scheme’s £110 million. Lily said over the weekend:
“As the Trade Secretary overseeing our entry into the single market in 1992, I claimed it would wonderfully boost our exports. I was wrong… In a triumph of hope over experience, the government is pursuing a “Reset”… This unilateral submission won’t help our exporters… but will burden the 92% of British firms that don’t export to the EU with the overregulation which has crippled EU growth. And the EU expect us to pay them for this!”
Read the full report below…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”