Talking to the MP About Brexit Part 3

Another installment in my occasional series of letters to my Tory Brexiter MP about Brexit.  

I believe the result of the Referendum should be honoured.  But all we were asked was whether we should leave the EU.  There was nothing about the how.  EFTA aka the Norway option would take the UK outside the EU and put us back where we were before we joined.  Without breaking everything.  

Me, 20 February 2018

I’m emailing you to express my concern about the findings of the leaked forecasts about the impacts of the various Brexit models on communities throughout the UK and the government’s response:

They make grim reading.  Approximately 3 million jobs lost under the worst case scenario.  That's 3 million people with mortgages / rent to pay, car loans, food to buy, maybe dependents to support and all that stuff.

The remarks by the Koji Tsuruoka, the Japanese ambassador to the UK, are also sobering:

“If there is no profitability of continuing operations in the UK  … no private company can continue operations. So, it’s as simple as that. This is all high stakes that I think all of us need to keep in mind.”

Despite these alarm bells, you all seem determined to carry on regardless.  Forecasts and industry bodies are ignored.  Company statements about relocating jobs and investments away from the UK waved away.

With just over a year to go before the UK leaves the EU, there is still not a realistic, deliverable plan for Brexit. Just some meetings in the diary.

There has been no discussion with voters about the merits of the various Brexit models available and the trade-offs each involves. Studies like these shouldn’t be leaked.  They should be shared with voters.

No vision for the kind of outward looking, future focused country Britain wants to be afterwards.

No solutions to the problems  that drove the Leave vote or suggestions to improve people’s lives.  Or any attempt to bring Leavers and Remainers together.  It’s like 48% of voters no longer count.

No measures to replace the various things that will be lost after we’ve left the EU like flight treaties etc.  Nothing in place to solve the various issues that will be created – like lorry parks, customs systems, a new immigration system etc

The Tories always had policies and competence.  Now it seems you don’t even have that. You just have some nice soundbites.  “Brexit is more important than the Queen”.  Soundbites aren’t going to replace those lost jobs, investment or rebuild communities.  They don’t translate into meaningful policies.

Soundbites aren’t going to get the Tories out of the hole you’ve dug for yourselves either.  Brexit is a Tory policy.  The referendum was called by a Tory PM. The faces of Vote Leave were Tory.  The people current making the most noise about Brexit are Tory.  A Tory government is taking Britain out of the EU.  When people next vote, they’re going to take that all into account.  The Lib-Dems have already managed to take council seats in Sunderland, a place with one of the highest Leave votes in the country.  If that’s possible in Sunderland, how do you think that’s going to play out in the council elections that are coming up in heavily Remain areas?  In the next General Election?

Please would you start lobbying for an orderly Brexit, one that respects the Leave vote but puts your constituent’s jobs and the UK economy first.  Opinion polls showing that many voters would be happy with EEA / EFTA.  Of all the models in the data leaked to Buzzfeed, it was the least worst.  It also puts the UK back to where it was in 1973 when it joined the EU.


Thank you for reading this and I look forward to hearing from you.

My MP, 20 February 2018

Thank you for your email and for letting me know of the concerns you have with this.

The government have been clear that they want an orderly Brexit like you have suggested. A comprehensive free trading arrangement with the EU is the specified purpose of the negotiations that are taking place at the moment and I believe they are achievable. I recently spoke in a debate in Westminster Hall against a petition that proposed we leave the EU without a deal. This is because I agree with you and the government that we want an orderly Brexit.

I understand your point but we have had a general election less than a year ago where the two major parties stood on a manifesto to leave the EU, including its single market and customs union, and achieved the overwhelming majority to votes.

Thank you again for writing to me and sharing your concerns with me on this important subject.

Me, Unsent

My concerns that you are completely ignoring.  Parroting "you voted for this" and "we're delivering Brexit" without considering anything else is a complete abdication of your responsibilities as a legislator and the Tories as a government.

The studies, even if half way accurate, are damning.  They suggest the government's chosen form of Brexit is the worst option of all.  Making people poorer, costing jobs and everyone's life more difficult.  And that's before considering the lack of solutions to key issues like the Irish border.  But attempts to discuss other options are dodged using every Parliamentary trick in the book, blanked or shouted down.