Dear friend,
I’m heading back to Westminster this evening for Saturday’s sitting of Parliament and to vote on Johnson’s Brexit Deal. I wanted to let you know how I intend to vote and why. Please get in touch with any comments or feedback.
I will be voting against the deal tomorrow. However, I have added my name to the Kyle-Wilson amendment which seeks to put a deal back to the people for a confirmatory public vote. Putting this deal back to the people for a final say is, I believe, the only democratic way forward.
It is clear that the Johnson deal is a worse deal than the one that Theresa May put before Parliament. It is a hard Brexit which pushes us further away from our European friends and neighbours and gives the Tory Government free-reign to deregulate our economy in the future. This hard Brexit will impact jobs, livelihoods and communities in Cardiff North, Wales and the UK. It also paves the way for a full-scale erosion of hard fought for workers’ rights and environmental rights, standards and protections.
This deal also threatens our future economic relationship with the EU, ruling out a new Customs Union and a close future relationship based on a Single or Common Market. With no regulatory alignment we will be unable to trade with the Single Market in goods and services, creating trade barriers that will make Wales poorer. The Welsh economy heavily relies on unfettered access to EU markets. The hard border created in the Irish sea will also have a catastrophic impact on Wales which is heavily reliant on ports like Holyhead.
Finally, this Brexit deal does not ‘get Brexit done’. It signals the beginning of lengthy trade negotiations with the EU which will continue for years, even decades at home and abroad. We will need to negotiate new agreements on services, data transfers, security, foreign policy, scientific cooperation, aviation safety, medicines and chemicals regulation to name but a few and needless to say these negotiations are complex and take a long time. Why begin a decade of negotiations on a free trade agreement which will leave us far worse off than we are now? We need the country to move on and start tackling other hugely important issues which are being ignored because of the Brexit process, such as tackling inequality and taking action on the climate emergency. That is through a confirmatory public vote where I shall campaign for remain.
I continue to believe that the only democratic way to break the Brexit impasse is to put it back to the people for a final say. The best deal available is the one we have now, as full members of the European Union.
As we know, things are very uncertain tomorrow, but I will keep you posted as things progress. As ever, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to ask any questions, give me your views or discuss anything further.
With very best wishes,
Anna
