For the Weekending 19 January 2018

For the Weekending 19 January 2018

Weekend Brief

For the weekending 19 January 2018.

Contents

The week-in-brief: For the week ending 19 January 2018

Building a Britain fit for the future

Brexit: Getting the best Brexit deal for Britain

The Choice on Brexit

Carillion

European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

Action on Loneliness

NHS: Winter Preparedness

Cost of Living: Inflation

Transport for the North: Transport Plan

Housing: Building the homes this country needs

Education: Improving standards in our schools and colleges

Background Briefing: A balanced approach to the economy

Background Briefing: Building a Britain fit for the future

The Labour Party: not fit to govern

The SNP: failing Scotland

Conservative Achievements

The week-in-brief: For the week ending 19 January 2018

Building a Britain fit for the future

  • We will tackle the challenges our country faces and build a Britain that is fit for the future by getting the best Brexit deal, taking a balanced approach to government spending, building the homes our country needs, improving standards in our schools and colleges and tackling the injustices that hold people back from achieving their true potential.

Carillion

  • We want good-quality public services delivered at the best value to the taxpayer. We are making sure that public services continue to be provided, that the workers in those public services aresupported and that taxpayers are protected.
  • We are ensuring that the official receiver’s investigation into the company’s business dealings is fast-tracked and that it looks into not just the conduct of current directors, but previous directors and their actions.Where those payments are unlawful or unjustified, the official receiver has the powers to take action to recover those payments.
  • Labour have attacked the Government for outsourcing, but in reality their record in office highlights their hypocrisy over outsourcing.Just last week, Labour-run Leeds City Council was ready to award Carillion a £120 million contract, and under Labour Carillion claimed to have become ‘the leading constructor’ for PFI contracts. While the now shadow Healthy Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, was a Treasury Special Adviser under Gordon Brown, Labour signed a £500 million MoD contract with Carillion.

European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

  • Last night, Labour voted to oppose the Third Reading of the EU Withdrawal Bill - showing all they want to do is frustrate the process instead of trying to make Brexit work.
  • 243 Labour MPs tried to block the EU Withdrawal Bill last night, which would have frustrated the process of leaving the European Union.
  • The EU Withdrawal Bill is essential in making sure that we get the smoothest possible Brexit. Labour’s attempts to block the Bill just show that they’re putting party politics above the national interest. Only the Conservatives can be trusted to take back control of our laws, our borders and our money.

Action on Loneliness

  • Loneliness is the sad reality of modern life for too many people. Research shows that more than 9 million people always or often feel lonely, and that around 200,000 older people have not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month.
  • We are taking action to tackle loneliness and isolation, accepting a series of recommendations from the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, including the appointment of a ministerial lead on loneliness.

NHS winter preparedness

  • The NHS is our most precious public service but we are all aware of the challenges it is facing this winter in light of rising patient numbers, and the increasingly complex needs of an ageing population.
  • We have given an additional £437 million of funding to the NHS to help it cope with winter. More than 1,000 extra beds have been freed up in since February and we have extended the flu vaccination program to make sure the NHS is more prepared for winter than ever before.
  • The NHS faces pressure over winter across the whole of the UK – including in Wales where it is run by Labour. And where the Royal College of Emergency Medicine suggested that A&E departments in Wales are’like battlefields’.

Building a Britain fit for the future

We will tackle the challenges our country faces and build a Britain that is fit for the future by:

  • Getting the best Brexit deal for Britain,guaranteeing the greatest possible access to European markets, boosting free trade with countries across the world, and delivering control over our borders, laws and money;
  • Taking a balanced approach to government spending, getting debt falling but also investing in our key public services, like the NHS, and keeping taxes low;
  • Helping businesses to create better, higher-paying jobs across the country with a modern industrial strategy that invests in the skills, industries and infrastructure of the future;
  • Building the homes our country needs, so everyone can afford a place to call their own, restoring the dream of home ownership and helping people to get a foot on the housing ladder;
  • Improving standards in our schools and colleges, so our young people have the skills they need to get on in life;
  • Backing the innovators who deliver growth, jobs, lower prices and greater choice for consumers - while stepping in when businesses don’t play by the rules;
  • Tackling the injustices that hold people back from achieving their true potential.

And underpinning this all is our commitment to protect our environment, so we leave our planet in a better state than we found it, with cleaner air, stronger protections for animal welfare and greener spaces.

By delivering on all of this, we can create a country with a stronger economy and a fairer society, one that will guarantee a better future for the next generation.

Labour are not fit to govern – and it’s working people who would pay the price

On the economy and public spending – they always take it too far.

Labour might make big promises on the campaign trail, but they won’t deliver them. The costs would just rack up and up, and we know what that means from last time – more debt, higher taxes, fewer jobs – and ordinary working people paying the price.

They never know where to draw the line: they would end up punishing the businesses and hard workers that create jobs, and make it easier to be on benefits than to work. They don’t have the balanced approach the country needs.

Corbyn and his top team – they break their promises, and they don’t live up to their rhetoric.

Their top team is unqualified, divided, and already going back on their promises – Corbyn’s broken his pledge on student debt, dropped his commitment to Trident, and he won’t call out some of the worrying things his Party says and does.

They’ve backtracked on Brexit too, trying to frustrate it rather than making it a success, with no interest in controlling our borders.

Whatever they say on housing, schools, or any other issue, their record proves they don’t deliver on their commitments.

Brexit: Getting the best Brexit deal for Britain

Recent developments

This week, Labour voted against the EU Withdrawal Bill at Third Reading, essential for ensuring we have a smooth and orderly Brexit, without suggesting any alternative solution. Labour have no plan for Brexit.

  • 243 Labour MPs tried to block the EU Withdrawal Bill this week, which would have frustrated the process of leaving the European Union. They didn’t even offer an alternative solution on how to transfer EU law.
  • Once again Labour have put playing politics above the national interest, confirming once more that all they offer is the most chaotic Brexit possible – and it is ordinary working people who would pay the price.
  • Only the Conservatives can be trusted to take back control of our laws, our borders and our money, taking the steps necessary to ensure continuity for businesses and families on the day we leave the EU.

The UK-EU Agreement

  • The agreement secures the rights of the three million EU citizens living here and the million British citizens living in the EU, and represents a fair settlement of the accounts.
  • We will maintain the Common Travel Area with Ireland, which has operated since the 1920s, and this agreement sets out both sides’ determination to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, while respecting the integrity of the UK single market.
  • This is now a good deal for citizens, for taxpayersand for all parts of the United Kingdom that will allow us to get on to thevital trade negotiations and get quick agreement to an implementationperiod in the best interests of people and businesses in the UK as we leave EU.
  • While we have reached agreement on the phase one issues, paragraph five of the
    report makes it clear that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’.

Citizens’ rights

  • Throughout this process, the PM has said that there needs to be reciprocal protections for British citizens living in the EU and for EU citizens living in the UK. This is what this deal delivers;
  • In the UK, EU citizens’ rights will be upheld by implementing the agreement into our law, instead of continued EU law enforced by the EU courts, as the EU first asked for. The compulsory jurisdiction of the ECJ will have ended.
  • Our courts can choose to ask the ECJ for a legal view on the law in relation to citizens’ rights where there is a point of law that has not arisen before – but our Courts will make the final judgements on each case, not the ECJ.
  • In practical terms, if the past is a guide we would not expect this to happen very often – it currently happens for two or three cases a year in this area of law. And this ability will be strictly confined to those citizens’ rights as exercised under the withdrawal agreement by EU citizens who were settled here before we leave the EU, and will not extend in any way beyond that. And there is an 8-year sunset clause in any case – at the end of which eventhis voluntary mechanism will come to an end and we will, once again, be in total control of our own laws.
  • In short, the ability of our courts to ask the ECJ for a view will be voluntary,very narrowly defined, and time limited.

Financial settlement

  • The Prime Minister has continually said that we are a country that honours its obligations. As part of that we have agreed a fair settlement of commitments we’ve made while a member of the EU, in the spirit of our future partnership.
  • Following a rigorous assessment by our negotiators of claims made on the EU side, we expect the settlement to come in significantly below many of the initial projections. All of this is money that we would have paid anyway had we stayed in the EU.
  • As we leave, and we pay off our commitments, this means there will besignificant sums to spend on our priorities, including the NHS, which would otherwise have gone to the EU.
  • This offer is made in the spirit of our future partnership, and depends upon a broader agreement being reached. Of course, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and if there is no agreement then our offer falls away too.

Northern Ireland

  • The Common Travel Area with Ireland will be maintained. Everyone has pledged that there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. We want to see that avoided by the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU that we are confident we can negotiate in phase 2. But if we do not achieve that we will look to negotiate specific solutions for the Northern Irish border.
  • If we do not achieve either of those outcomes, we will maintain full alignment – that is sharing the same policy goals even if we achieve them by different means - with those rules which specifically support north-south cooperation under the terms of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. We will do this either at a UK-wide level or at a Northern Ireland only level if there is cross-community consent for that. In either event, we will protect Northern Ireland’s place in the internal market of the UK with full, unfettered access for Northern Ireland’s businesses.
  • But we are confident it will not come to that. The best way to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is to negotiate the right trading relationship between the UK and the EU, and that is what we will now be able to do.

The Choice on Brexit

The Conservatives will get the best Brexit deal for our country – Labour’s approach would get us the worst deal:

  • We respect the decision the country made – Labour are frustrating the process.
  • We will leave the single market so that we can take back control of our laws – Labour would keep following EU rules with no say.
  • We make significant savings to spend on our priorities compared with remaining in the EU – Labour would continue to pay vast sums to the EU every year after Brexit.
  • We will get control of our borders – Labour won’t commit to ending free movement.
  • We want to strike new trade deals to create more jobs – Labour can’t decide if they would have an independent trade policy.
  • Getting the best Brexit deal for our country will mean we can build a better future for ordinary people by getting control of our laws, money and borders. Labour’s approach would get us the worst deal and not deliver the change the country needs.

Labour are trying to frustrate the process of Brexit

  • Labour voted against the EU Withdrawal Bill. The Bill, which ends the supremacy of EU law in the UK, is central to ensuring a smooth and orderly Brexit.[1]
  • Jeremy Corbyn hinted Labour could back a second referendum. ‘We’ve not made any decision on a second referendum… What we’ve said is that we would respect the result of the first referendum’.[2]
  • Diane Abbott actively supports a second referendum. In a letter to a constituent, Abbott wrote: ‘I will argue for the right of the electorate to vote on any deal that is finally agreed’.[3]

Labour would keep following EU rules with no say

  • Keir Starmer confirmed Labour would keep the UK bound by EU laws. Andrew Marr: ‘Under your negotiation we would still be mapping, copying and pasting, whatever, sticking very close to EU regulations…?’ Keir Starmer: ‘What underpins access and benefits of a single market and a customs union is a level playing field… so if you want those benefits, you have to stay on the same level playing field…’ AM: ‘So the answer is yes?’ KS: ‘Yes, we are very comfortable with staying on a level playing field’.[4]
  • Tom Watson wants to keep us in the single market permanently. ‘We think being part of the customs union and the single market is important in those transitional times because that’s the way you protect jobs and the economy and it might be a permanent outcome of the negotiations, but we’ve got to see how those negotiations go’.[5]

Labour would continue to pay vast sums to the EU every year after Brexit

  • Keir Starmer confirmed Labour would continue to make payments to the EU every year after Brexit. ‘Norway pays money in… They do it actually on a voluntary basis. There may have to be payments that would have to be negotiated’.[6]

Labour won’t commit to ending free movement

  • Keir Starmer said he would keep ‘easy movement’ with the EU. Keir Starmer: ‘Well that would have to be negotiated but the end of free movement doesn’t mean no movement…’ Andrew Marr: ‘Alright, Easy movement, if not free?’ KS: ‘Yes, of course’.[7]
  • Dawn Butler admitted this would mean no cap on EU migrants. Dawn Butler: ‘Well that is something that he will then develop in terms of detail but the question he was answering...’ Jo Coburn: ‘Will there be a cap on numbers for example?’ DB: ‘We never talk about caps on numbers’.[8]
  • Diane Abbott said there can be no deal on freedom of movement. ‘Those of us who are arguing for the least harmful Brexit have to be clear… there is no deal to be done on freedom of movement, and to imperil our economic interests as a country because of anti-immigrant feeling would scarcely be responsible’.[9]

Labour can’t decide if they want to have an independent trade policy

  • Keir Starmer suggested Labour could keep the UK in the customs union. ‘That means remaining in a form of customs union with the EU is a possible end destination for Labour, but that must be subject to negotiations’.[10]
  • Even though Barry Gardiner said it was ‘deeply unattractive’ to remain in the customs union. ‘As a transitional phase, a customs union agreement might be thought to have some merit. However, as an end point it is deeply unattractive. It would preclude us from making our own independent trade agreements with our five largest export markets outside the EU’.[11]
  • Labour are split on whether to keep UK in the customs union. Labour whipped MPs to vote with the Government and against an amendment placed on the Taxation (Cross Border Trade) Bill by Ian Murray, which would have prevented taxes being charged on imports to the UK after it leaves the EU, a move that, owing to WTO rules, would effectively have kept the UK in the customs union.[12]

Carillion

Issue: On 15 January 2018, the Government immediately announced that we would protect essential public services after Carillion went into liquidation.[13]

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