Cat Eccles

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) for introducing this important debate. We were told that Brexit means Brexit, but what does that mean? We have heard a lot about sausages this morning; perhaps Brexit means breakfast—that certainly makes a lot more sense than that three-word slogan. A decade on from the EU membership referendum, we face higher costs, lower growth and less influence. Brexit has made the UK poorer, more isolated and less competitive. The promised trade deal with the US has failed to materialise; instead, Trump has threatened the UK with crippling tariffs. The post-Brexit trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand negotiated by the previous Conservative Government delivered only marginal economic benefits, while the deal with Singapore merely rolled over the arrangements that we enjoyed prior to Brexit. As for Canada, after years of negotiations, the UK has still been unable to secure an enhanced agreement. Rather than unlocking a new era of prosperity, those deals have largely fallen short of the promises. Since Brexit, trade with our largest market has become slower, costlier and more bureaucratic. British exporters now face customs checks and regulatory barriers that did not exist before, and goods exports to the EU remain below their pre-Brexit levels. The OBR estimates that UK trade will ultimately be around 15% lower than it would have been had we remained in the EU. Brexit’s worst effects can and must be reduced, and that is why this Government’s efforts to rebuild our relationship with the EU matter. By pursuing closer co-operation and greater regulatory alignment where it serves our national interest, the Government are helping to make trade easier, but we need to go much further. Europe remains our biggest trading partner, and a pragmatic relationship with our closest neighbours is not an ideological choice but an economic necessity. We cannot erase the damage and costs of Brexit overnight, but we can reduce them to help British business and industry thrive.