The Conservatives know the scale of the disaster Brexit poses - and they want to keep voters in the dark, says Labour's leader in the European Parliament.
If Brexit is going to be so great, why have so many Brexiters been opposed to the government releasing its Brexit impact assessments? Why keep them hidden away if it’s going to be glorious? And why not show the EU that we’ll do spiffingly when we leave thank you very much, deal or no deal?
As has become more and more evident as the weeks tick by, the truth is that this Tory government will not be able to deliver on the Leave campaign’s promises, and never will. And they have fifty-eight documents to prove it.
It’s a trove of evidence to go alongside all the warnings we’ve seen of the reality of what a disastrous Tory Brexit will look like.
The studies cover sectors representing 88 per cent of the UK economy; if you work there, your government knows how Brexit will affect you – but doesn’t want you to know. From agriculture, animal health and food and drink manufacturing; to the automotive industry; to medical services and social care; to financial services, the 58 sectors covered by the reports map the sphere of the entire UK economy.
And given what we’ve learnt just this week about the impact of Brexit on those four sectors alone, it’s no wonder Brexiters would rather Parliament and the public were kept in the dark:
- On Monday, the Healthcare Distribution Association (HDA), an organisation representing firms that supply 92 per cent of the NHS’s medicines, warned Britain’s medicines bill could jump by £100 million a year if pharmacies are not able to source cheaper drugs from the Continent after Brexit
- On Tuesday, the Bank of England warned that up to 75,000 jobs could be lost in financial services following Britain’s departure from the European Union
- On Wednesday, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) Food, Farming & Countryside Commission revealed that most of the UK’s fruit and veg is from other EU nations, so the Brexit impact “may be dramatic”
- Also on Wednesday, car industry executives told the Prime Minister that Brexit poses huge risks to the auto sector at a high-level No 10 meeting;
- And on Thursday, the Nursing and Midwifery Council warned the NHS faces a staffing shortfall: one in ten EU nurses left their jobs in Britain last year – a 67 per cent rise in Europeans quitting the profession.
Throw in the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) report that said British households are already more than £600 a year worse off each following the vote to leave the European Union – and it’s hardly surprising the Brexiters are desperate to keep the impact assessments locked up.
Even David Davis this week conceded Britain’s Brexit withdrawal agreement is likely to favour the European Union, not the UK, in money terms.
They will do anything to avoid debate on the facts, the evidence, the reality, the rationality of the Brexit course this Tory government is set on. We have a menagerie of ministers groping around, trying desperately to evade scrutiny from parliament and the public.
And no, the release of these documents will not weaken the UK’s hand in the negotiations, a hand that is being weakened daily by the chaos and confusion, disaster and division at the heart of the Tory government.
What they really fear is that public opinion will change, as voters learn more about the impact of Brexit on their everyday lives.
As Keir Starmer said, it is completely unacceptable for the Tories to spend months avoiding scrutiny and trying to keep the public in the dark.
Ministers cannot continue to withhold vital information from Parliament and the public about the impact of Brexit on jobs and the economy – it’s time for them to fess up and face the music.
Richard Corbett MEP is Labour’s Leader in the European Parliament
10 Responses to “Why the Tories are terrified of releasing the Brexit impact papers”
Dulari-Leiylah Markelke
Brexit must be stopped we need a second referendum or an exit . Whatever tory vision is its not in the interest of society. Their secrecy is ever more suspicious. Sir Starmer is absolutely right to be fighting these papers release.
Michael
And, of course, brexiters don’t want information in the public domain that does not say Brexit will be easy and wonderful.
Alasdair Macdonald
As usual, Labour is behind the curve. The ‘provincials’ who run the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales have been talking about things like this virtually since the Brexit result. However, since Labour hate the SNP and PC then these things have been ignored. Labour has voted with the Government on a number of Brexit issues. Labour is still too arrogant to form alliances with SNP, LibDems, Greens, PC and, indeed, some sections of the Northern Irish unionists in order to bring about real change. Labour does not want Westminster to change. It wants to be in control of Westminster to exercise it in its own interests.
Michael
Democracy is a process, not an event. It is not a matter of “put your cross on a piece of paper every five years and then shut your gobs.”
Mike Stallard
If you have not done your homework – and the government has not done their homework – then you are headed for (another) disaster. I am a conservative – always have been, by the way, and a Brexit voter.
We must stay in what Mr Wilson called the Common Market. It morphed eventually into the EU at Lisbon.
How?
Well, there are two pillars to the Common Market (as was: it is now called EEA). One is, of course the EU Single Market. The other is called the EFTA: Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland.
If we were to join these three countries, we would stay in the Common Market and also be free of the following: ECJ, CAP, CFP; we would be free to negotiate with the rest of the world in trading standards; we would be free to discuss which Directives we accept and we would also be free to enjoy a much lower pay to the EU per year.
But not a lot of people know that.
Which is why we face disaster on 29th-30 March 2019.