PM May to the Conservative Party: Hard Brexit

03 October 2016

PM May’s speech to the Conservative Conference: It reads like Hard Brexit; it’s spun as Hard Brexit so it probably is Hard Brexit because it is completely inconsistent with EEA membership. For the avoidance of any doubt, this inconsistency was repeated four times!

Closing off the possibility of an EEA deal is bad news for the UK’s financial services industry as the possibility of remaining “equivalent” to keep the “passport” becomes ever more remote. When is Chancellor Hammond going to come clean on how much of the industry’s £66 billion of tax revenues will be lost by 2019? Perhaps the November Autumn Statement “re-set” of fiscal policy will be an even nastier shock for financial markets than they are braced for.


Speech extracts with commentary

I have added my commentary to these extracts from the Prime Minister’s speech:“As we repeal the European Communities Act, we will convert the ‘acquis’ – that is, the body of existing EU law – into British law. When the Great Repeal Bill is given Royal Assent, Parliament will be free – subject to (so not free at all..) international agreements and treaties with other countries and the EU on matters such as trade – to amend, repeal and improve any law it chooses. …Any changes in the law will have to be subject to full scrutiny and proper Parliamentary debate… So this rules out EEA membership as the essence of that concept is slavishly following- with no influence - the decisions made by the EU.

And that means we are going, once more, to have the freedom to make our own decisions on a whole host of different matters, from how we label our food to the way in which we choose to control immigration. Re-iterating the impossibility of EEA membership. [...]

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© Graham Bishop