Sir Bill Cash is the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee and MP for Stone.
The Wellingborough and Kingswood by-elections could a turning point in the run up to the next general election. Polls suggest that disaffected Conservatives are turning to Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit Party.
These are without challenging times for the nation and for the Government. But I have seen many ups and downs since I first entered Parliament in 1984, and have learned the importance of maintaining a proper sense of perspective.
We were elected in 2019 to get Brexit done, and have made huge progress. The UK has suffered a series of external shocks: first Covid, and then Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, with all the knock on effects for our economy and standard of living.
Neither of these were caused by the Conservative Government. The only beneficiary of a protest vote for Reform would be Sir Keir Starmer – and a Labour government would put at risk all the progress we have made since 2019 in disentangling our country from the European Union.
Brexit is one of the most important peaceful revolutions in our history. We have regained our independence, self-government, and sovereignty. This is not just high constitutional politics: it hugely impacts our day-to-day lives.
While Europe is plunging into recession, Britain is resilient, and our economy improving; the IMF and Deutsche Bank report that Germany is losing its manufacturing dominance, and the UK will soon outgrow Germany and France as they suffer from the failing Eurozone.
In these difficult economic times, we are successfully meeting the economic challenges and increases in the cost of living and interest rates; in 2022. The United Kingdom was the fifth biggest exporter in the world; last week, the Policy Head of the City of London Corporation wrote that “London is now the leading global financial centre”, up by 68 per cent in 2023 and overtaking New York.
Post-Brexit trade deals (including Australia and New Zealand) bring in billions of pounds of new investment, and our joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership makes over 99 per cent of British goods eligible for zero tariffs in some of the world’s key markets. Since 2016, the UK has grown faster than Germany, Italy, and Japan. Brexit has proved that Project Fear’s claims in the 2016 Referendum of mass unemployment and economic collapse were utterly wrong.
On illegal migration, many EU Member States are tearing their hair out, with severe backlash from voters, as Brussels imposes compulsory quotas and fines by majority vote. We escaped in the nick of time by leaving. Moreover, many Member States will need constitutional amendments and referendums, a drawn-out process which will only exacerbate voters’ anger.
We, with our regained sovereignty and democratic self-government, can legislate in our own Parliament, answerable to the British electorate. Whereas decisions in Brussels are taken behind closed doors, MPs’ deliberations are published in full via Hansard.
Take the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Rwanda scheme. Whilst a setback for the Government it also saw Lord Reed make absolutely clear that one of the claimants’ cases was dismissed only because of the explicit wording of post-Brexit legislation.
Meanwhile the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which aims to address the judgment and get the scheme operational, is currently progressing through Parliament.
Having left the EU, we have also escaped from the 7,233 EU laws which have been adopted or amended since 2020.
The pioneering Online Safety Act 2023 also contrasts very well both with Brussels’ weak Digital Services Act and the situation in the United States, where senators recently accused the big tech bosses of having “blood on their hands”. We led the world with our Covid vaccine, which saved hundreds of thousands of British lives.
Meanwhile, the EU is in turmoil economically and politically, with massive protests in France, Germany, Spain and many other countries, and radical parties on the rise.
Overall, it is absurd to suggest that the Conservative Party has not made great progress since Brexit. It was always going to be step-by-step, but those steps are now achievable.
For example, all the laws made by the EU when we were a member can now be disposed of, because we have eliminated the principle of supremacy of EU law and the European Court. Before Brexit, not one single EU law since 1972 was ever rejected by our Parliament.
These are only a few of the many Brexit successes achieved entirely by this Conservative Government since 2020. A Labour government would put all this progress at risk – and that is the only thing a vote for Reform UK is likely to deliver.
It is a party with no prospect of any majority in the House of Commons, which cannot and will not change a word of legislation. Instead, Reform’s leadership pretends to relevance by saying they brought about the 2016 referendum.
This is nonsense. It was secured by decades of campaigning by a coalition that extended far beyond UKIP (they don’t even mention Jimmy Goldsmith). Meanwhile it was Conservative MPs and governments which proposed and passed the Referendum Act and all subsequent Brexit legislation.
In the real world, Reform’s impact is negligible. Whilst the Brexit Party secured seats in the European Parliament (on a miniscule 37 per cent turnout) in 2019, it won no seats at all in the general election that same year. The Conservative Party won when it mattered.
Little wonder that Reform campaigns for proportional representation, the self-interested priority of many minor parties. But under our present system, they can only ease Labour’s path to power – and their voters will be bitterly disappointed with what will follow a Starmer victory.
I thus urge all Conservative voters in Wellingborough and Kingswood to turn out for our party on Thursday. It’s the only way to safeguard our country’s hard-won independence – and protect all of us from the prospect of a spendthrift, economically incompetent Labour government.
Sir Bill Cash is the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee and MP for Stone.
The Wellingborough and Kingswood by-elections could a turning point in the run up to the next general election. Polls suggest that disaffected Conservatives are turning to Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit Party.
These are without challenging times for the nation and for the Government. But I have seen many ups and downs since I first entered Parliament in 1984, and have learned the importance of maintaining a proper sense of perspective.
We were elected in 2019 to get Brexit done, and have made huge progress. The UK has suffered a series of external shocks: first Covid, and then Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, with all the knock on effects for our economy and standard of living.
Neither of these were caused by the Conservative Government. The only beneficiary of a protest vote for Reform would be Sir Keir Starmer – and a Labour government would put at risk all the progress we have made since 2019 in disentangling our country from the European Union.
Brexit is one of the most important peaceful revolutions in our history. We have regained our independence, self-government, and sovereignty. This is not just high constitutional politics: it hugely impacts our day-to-day lives.
While Europe is plunging into recession, Britain is resilient, and our economy improving; the IMF and Deutsche Bank report that Germany is losing its manufacturing dominance, and the UK will soon outgrow Germany and France as they suffer from the failing Eurozone.
In these difficult economic times, we are successfully meeting the economic challenges and increases in the cost of living and interest rates; in 2022. The United Kingdom was the fifth biggest exporter in the world; last week, the Policy Head of the City of London Corporation wrote that “London is now the leading global financial centre”, up by 68 per cent in 2023 and overtaking New York.
Post-Brexit trade deals (including Australia and New Zealand) bring in billions of pounds of new investment, and our joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership makes over 99 per cent of British goods eligible for zero tariffs in some of the world’s key markets. Since 2016, the UK has grown faster than Germany, Italy, and Japan. Brexit has proved that Project Fear’s claims in the 2016 Referendum of mass unemployment and economic collapse were utterly wrong.
On illegal migration, many EU Member States are tearing their hair out, with severe backlash from voters, as Brussels imposes compulsory quotas and fines by majority vote. We escaped in the nick of time by leaving. Moreover, many Member States will need constitutional amendments and referendums, a drawn-out process which will only exacerbate voters’ anger.
We, with our regained sovereignty and democratic self-government, can legislate in our own Parliament, answerable to the British electorate. Whereas decisions in Brussels are taken behind closed doors, MPs’ deliberations are published in full via Hansard.
Take the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Rwanda scheme. Whilst a setback for the Government it also saw Lord Reed make absolutely clear that one of the claimants’ cases was dismissed only because of the explicit wording of post-Brexit legislation.
Meanwhile the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which aims to address the judgment and get the scheme operational, is currently progressing through Parliament.
Having left the EU, we have also escaped from the 7,233 EU laws which have been adopted or amended since 2020.
The pioneering Online Safety Act 2023 also contrasts very well both with Brussels’ weak Digital Services Act and the situation in the United States, where senators recently accused the big tech bosses of having “blood on their hands”. We led the world with our Covid vaccine, which saved hundreds of thousands of British lives.
Meanwhile, the EU is in turmoil economically and politically, with massive protests in France, Germany, Spain and many other countries, and radical parties on the rise.
Overall, it is absurd to suggest that the Conservative Party has not made great progress since Brexit. It was always going to be step-by-step, but those steps are now achievable.
For example, all the laws made by the EU when we were a member can now be disposed of, because we have eliminated the principle of supremacy of EU law and the European Court. Before Brexit, not one single EU law since 1972 was ever rejected by our Parliament.
These are only a few of the many Brexit successes achieved entirely by this Conservative Government since 2020. A Labour government would put all this progress at risk – and that is the only thing a vote for Reform UK is likely to deliver.
It is a party with no prospect of any majority in the House of Commons, which cannot and will not change a word of legislation. Instead, Reform’s leadership pretends to relevance by saying they brought about the 2016 referendum.
This is nonsense. It was secured by decades of campaigning by a coalition that extended far beyond UKIP (they don’t even mention Jimmy Goldsmith). Meanwhile it was Conservative MPs and governments which proposed and passed the Referendum Act and all subsequent Brexit legislation.
In the real world, Reform’s impact is negligible. Whilst the Brexit Party secured seats in the European Parliament (on a miniscule 37 per cent turnout) in 2019, it won no seats at all in the general election that same year. The Conservative Party won when it mattered.
Little wonder that Reform campaigns for proportional representation, the self-interested priority of many minor parties. But under our present system, they can only ease Labour’s path to power – and their voters will be bitterly disappointed with what will follow a Starmer victory.
I thus urge all Conservative voters in Wellingborough and Kingswood to turn out for our party on Thursday. It’s the only way to safeguard our country’s hard-won independence – and protect all of us from the prospect of a spendthrift, economically incompetent Labour government.