Glenis
Willmott MEP, Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, speaking at the
Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said:
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Conference,
this is my final speech as Labour’s Leader in the European Parliament. Next week
I will be retiring as an MEP. And while I must sadly, inevitably, talk about
Brexit, perhaps you can indulge me for a minute in a little nostalgia.
Look
back with me to a simpler time. Before the Tories’ EU referendum divided our
country. When Britain was known around the world for its values of tolerance
and fairness at home and for its international leadership on the global stage.
It
was a time when if Britain’s negotiations went badly in Brussels, all we had to
fear – if you believed the papers – was quieter hoovers and slightly straighter
bananas.
It
is not that long ago, but it feels like a different world to today. And while
you can still find bendy bananas on the shelves of our supermarkets, a lot of
changes did come through our membership of the EU, that have made Britain a
better place.
Now,
we might not have not solved all the problems facing our country. but I am
proud of the work of Labour’s MEPs who have, working through the EU, helped in
the fight to overcome them:
·
Better
workers’ rights, such as equal pay for part-time workers and guaranteed paid
holiday;
·
Investment
in poorer parts of the country at a time when the Tory government was unashamed
in its disregard for our industrial communities;
·
Environmental
standards making the products we buy safer and helping to clean up our beaches
and the toxic air in our cities;
·
Improved
financial regulation, to tame the casino capitalism that led to the last global
financial crisis.
Conference,
I never claimed the EU was perfect, but as we now prepare to leave, we need to
remember the victories we have won. Because let us be in no doubt: many of the
politicians who are leading our country through the EU exit door want to leave
those rights and protections behind.
It
is one of the things they always hated about the EU – their desire for a
free-market free-for-all has been tempered by European values of social justice
and equality, by a belief in government stepping in to help the most
vulnerable.
And
as our country enters its most important negotiations in my lifetime, there is
a real danger that Britain will plummet out of the European Union with no deal
in 18 months.
And
no deal is not better than a bad deal: our country will become poorer; jobs
will be lost; whole sectors of the economy will grind to a halt.
It
is more than a year since the EU referendum. Six months since the triggering of
Article 50. So it is a good moment to take stock of those Brexit promises.
Remember?
International trade deals ready to go; British trade with Europe to be
guaranteed. Nobody, be they EU citizens in Britain or Brits abroad need worry
about their status.
Conference,
the government is no nearer to moving forward on these issues than it was when
Theresa May first entered Downing Street.
Now,
the government will claim the problems lie with the EU. Theresa May has called
on EU leaders to be creative and to show more imagination.
But
our colleagues in Europe simply see a government stuck in a world of its own
imagination: an expectation that we be released from the rules of European
trade, but then just continue to trade like we used to; the idea of putting up
a new customs border that both exists and doesn’t exist at the same time.
Conference,
it’s not creative, it’s science fiction. And I’ll tell you something else
that’s science fiction: the outrageous claim that our NHS will get an extra
£350 million a week because of Brexit. It isn’t true. It was never true. Shame
on you Boris Johnson.
Conference,
I raise these examples because there is a danger that the prime minister leads
the country into Brexit in the same failed way she led her party into the
General Election.
Back
in May and June, Theresa May kept proclaiming herself to be a strong and stable
leader, when all around her could plainly see she was anything but. She was the
only person left believing her own propaganda. And once again her strategy is
failing.
She
chose to start negotiations on a note of confrontation putting her party before
the country. She tried to regain lost trust with her speech in Florence, yet
all can see that her government policy is still just broad aspiration at best.
From
manufacturing to medicine, financial services to food processing, sector after
sector of our economy is facing uncertainty. Investment decisions are delayed.
So
let’s be clear: the government’s fly-by-night negotiating strategy is a threat
to jobs, it is a threat to tax revenues, and, in undermining the economy of our
country, it is a threat to the future of our public services as well.
Conference,
I’m not going to stand up on this stage and tell you that I think Brexit is the
answer to our country’s problems. I don’t. I put my heart and soul into
campaigning in the referendum for Britain to stay in the European Union, to
maintain our alliances, to protect our trade and the jobs that depend on it. It
is what I think would have been best for the country. But, and it really does
pain me to say this, we lost.
And
just like after any electoral defeat, we need to pick ourselves up, look at the
challenges facing our country, and begin the next campaign.
So
now Labour MEPs are looking ahead to what will probably be their final vote:
sometime in the next 18 months the European Parliament will have to decide
whether to approve – or not – the final Brexit deal.
And
on behalf of my Labour colleagues, and on behalf of our sister party colleagues
across Europe, I can tell you:
·
There
will be no backing for a deal that undermines the peace process in Northern
Ireland;
·
There
will be no backing for a deal that fails to give peace of mind to EU citizens
in Britain and Brits who have made their home abroad;
·
And
there will be no backing for a deal that opens the door to attacks on workers’
rights and safety standards.
So
conference, as the Brexit talks continue, let’s stand united in holding the
Tories’ feet to the fire. In challenging the heartlessness of the right-wing
vision for Brexit Britain. And let’s stand united as Labour campaigns as the
true voice of our country.
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