Labour MP Hilary Benn with nothing but truth on Brexit failings in powerful speech

Hillary been McCabe question in this debate is a very simple one what has been the impact of leaving the European Union and I was Matt struck reading the government's response to this petition which I thought was uh really quite dismissive and defensive in essence it said it was Democratic decision so there's nothing to look into here nothing's happening now of course it was a democratic decision it has been made and we remain as I've yeah with one exception uh two exceptions um we lost and the point that was made by The Honorable member for graveston about sovereignty I met many people during the campaign who made that argument indeed they said I don't care about the economic impact my sovereignty is more important and I respect people's right to hold that view I fundamentally disagree with it but what I think was Unforgivable was to claim that we could have all our sovereignty keep all the benefits of being members of the European Union and get further benefits on top of that it simply wasn't true and we now know that it wasn't a true and therefore those who argued for us to leave the European Union are now in a state of confusion and denial that is what is um going on particularly about The Economic Consequences and if we don't understand what they are how on Earth are we going to build a new Urban different relationship with our European colleagues over the months and the years are ahead and it is interesting that there's a number of members here today with whom I had the pleasure of serving on the UK trading business Commission a reference to which has already been made because we felt it was important to ask that question and then you let the evidence speak for itself and if if people want to come to the before the commission say it's wonderful look at these opportunities I'd love to hear them there hadn't been that many who have in fact uh done that and the truth is it's had a bad impact on the economy I was really struck by that statistic which showed that the number of small businesses actually trading Goods with the European Union declined by one-third between 2020 and 2021. now not entirely surprising because it's small businesses that most find it difficult to cope with the burden cost bureaucracy and red tape brexit was never sold it was sold as getting rid of cost bureaucracy and web take it's dumped the biggest load of those three things on British businesses we've seen in our lifetime we're going to be the worst of Performing large economy in the world this year business investment is a percentage of GDP has stalled since the referendum in the UK and it is worth just reminding ourselves what the offers for Budget responsibility set and I quote it will result in the UK's trade intensity being 15 lower in the long run than if the UK have remained in the EU and the latest evidence suggests that brexit has had a significant adverse impact on UK trade via reducing both overall trade volumes and the number of trading relationships between UK and EU firms and ironically while all of these costs have been imposed on British companies exporting the government hasn't yet introduced full checks on Goods coming into the United Kingdom from the European Union why hasn't it done that because it's afraid about shortages and delays so the sovereignty that has been gained is not being used to apply the same checks going one way as we are facing going the other way the trade deals have been referred to I was very struck when the former environment secretary the member for cambon and Campbell and red Ruth described the Australian agreement as as being actually not a very good deal because we're given far too much away we all know that that's the case and the promised trade deal with the United States of America the biggest argument we heard absolutely nowhere to be seen it's not happening it's not coming and the fundamental truth is if you make trade with your biggest trading partner more difficult which is what we've done then don't be surprised if it has an adverse effect on the British economy at a time when we need all the growth we can get to help our constituents and we've heard about employers finding it hard to get Workers I was very struck when we visited as the commission the fruit farm in Kent and the owner of that said last year I couldn't pick eight percent of my crop because I couldn't find enough workers and you know what I'm doing this year I'm planting less crop and I'm going to import more fruit from the rest of the world what a wonderful advert for the growth of the British economy that that is the conclusion that that farmer would for I will give looking at these issues as a member of The Shadow defra team it's really ironic that what we're finding is is that we're having less UK production and more import directly from the EU which actually is a negative impact of brexit rather than the positive impact of us be able to trade out so it's exactly the opposite of the claims and exactly why we need to have something like this well indeed that is the case if you make it more difficult for your businesses and we want as much export opportunity as possible um don't be surprised if it damages people and the other irony about sovereignty is the government said we're going to use our sovereignty to introduce a British version of the reach chemicals regulation now they're just postponed it for the second time not least because the British chemical industry has said you know it's going to cost us about two billion pounds for absolutely no purpose whatsoever to get back to where we were when we originally got our chemicals assessed under reach the ukca mark which is meant to replace the sea Mark you found or you found on the bottom of lots of goods that are made the government's postponed that again because a lot of British businesses say what is the point of doing this what is the point and on the uh retained law bill which is a artificial mechanism to try and force through um changes to retained EU law I remain of the view despite the concerns have been expressed but by the end of the year we will still be in alignment with a lot of EU law partly because we argued for a lot of it in the first place you know it wasn't imposed upon us we were part of the decision uh making process and because a cost comes to the economy from diverging from the rules are applied by our biggest trading partners and the fact is every company that is exporting to Europe well they're going to make their goods to the standards set by Europe whatever the British government thinks because that's what you do if you want to continue to trade and it is really striking that those who argued so strongly for these benefits no upsides no downsides only upsides all of those quotes that come back I think now to haunt those who who made them they found it very difficult to know what to say so they try and blame remainers it's like all revolutionaries if I may use the analogy when the revolution doesn't quite work out they say but comrade it was not applied with sufficient Vigor and Purity an argument that some members in the chamber may be more familiar with than others and the truth is that and this is the hard part of this debate is we cannot simply reverse what has happened it is very striking that when I look at not the governing party but the major other parties representing the house with the exception of the SNP who want another referendum for another purpose and none of those parties are saying we should have a referendum after the next election to see whether the British people want to change their minds because you can't reverse it just like that and we know that I I looked at the words and the green parties say rejoin as soon as the political situation is favorable and the right terms are available I think that's a a interesting observation the lib Dems as I understand their current position rejoin the single Market once the ties of trust and friendship are renewed and the truth is we're going to have to build a new but a different relationship with the European Union it's going to take time who knows what it will look like who knows what this country will look like in 10 or 20 or 30 years but in order to do that we have to be honest about the effect that this change has had on our country and our economy and that is why this question needs to be asked thanks very much for watching that video all the way to the end and if you liked it I've got some better news for you politics Joe is in the process of launching a podcast live in a couple of weeks time it's called The Pub cast link below probably somewhere in the comments or the description something like that check it out subscribe so you get ready for our first episode it's coming soon subscribe wherever you get your podcast Apple Spotify or any of those other slightly weirder platforms see you soon

Channel: PoliticsJOE

Views: 643,780

Keywords: Politics, UK politics, British politics, Parliament, Government, Westminster, news, breaking news, conversation, politics news, politicsjoe, joe songs, boris johnson song, boris johnson speech, keir starmer song, keir starmer speech, new media, novara, rishi sunak, labour party, conservative, tory party, conservatism, brexit, hilary benn, powerful speech, rousing speech, inspirational speech, political news

Id: YZ2G-o_SVb8

Length: 9min 55sec (595 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2023