Shailesh Vara is the MP for Peterborough who resigned as a junior minister in the NI Office in order to vote against the prime minister's deal. He has given an interview to his local paper (HERE) where he defends his action and claims a majority of his constituents support his stance not to back the deal.
Vara says:
"I’ve spent nearly 10 of those 14 years [in parliament] on the front bench, both in opposition and in government. So it has taken a lot for me to take the stance that I have – but I genuinely believe, having read the 585 pages of the withdrawal agreement and the 26 pages of the political declaration, that this is a really bad deal for the country and my constituents.
“Therefore, I’m not sure that we are in a better place now than we were a few days ago, unless the European Union is prepared to actually renegotiate the agreement. And it’s all very well the EU saying that ‘we’re not going to do it’, but when they do, we, as a nation, need to stand up and say ‘well, in that case we will have to consider alternatives’.”
“Therefore, I’m not sure that we are in a better place now than we were a few days ago, unless the European Union is prepared to actually renegotiate the agreement. And it’s all very well the EU saying that ‘we’re not going to do it’, but when they do, we, as a nation, need to stand up and say ‘well, in that case we will have to consider alternatives’.”
He doesn't say what the alternatives are beyond the EU renegotiating the deal - something they have expressly ruled out.
He added: “The difficulty I have is that I don’t believe that the
United Kingdom government has been as robust in all of these
negotiations as it should’ve been. In an ideal world what we should’ve
done two years ago is that the Prime Minister should have said very
publicly that she was instructing her civil servants to prepare for a
‘no deal’ scenario.
He wants to turn the clock back to March 28th 2017 and start again but with the benefit of hindsight.
We remainers would also like to wind the clock back - to March 2016 again with the benefit of hindsight. In fact if we could all go back to the morning of June 23rd 2016 knowing what we know now, I doubt if leave would win. The problem is we are where we are. We don't have a time machine.
He continues:
“She could’ve said ‘but, in the event that we don’t achieve an agreement I don’t want my country to be unprepared’. Now that would’ve added sufficient tension to the deal with the EU for them to think ‘we need to get a deal with the UK, because these people are serious, and they’re making preparations’. But I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t appear that we’ve done that.
“Therefore, we find ourselves today with the European Union looking at us – laughing at us – saying that they have the UK backed into a corner, and now we’re going to have to take the deal that they are going to give to us, rather than the other way around. To the EU it seems as if we’re not properly prepared – and we’re not.”
The problem with this approach is that had the government set out with no-deal as the main policy and planning goal, it would have been seen by industry as a self-fulfilling objective. The car industry was given assurances that 'frictionless' trade would be maintained as a way of persuading them to stay here. No deal would introduce maximum friction. What does the MP for Peterborough think would have happened?
I assume he has no just-in-time manufacturing in his constituency but other MPs do and are no doubt keen not to lose high skilled, well paid jobs.
He continues:
“She could’ve said ‘but, in the event that we don’t achieve an agreement I don’t want my country to be unprepared’. Now that would’ve added sufficient tension to the deal with the EU for them to think ‘we need to get a deal with the UK, because these people are serious, and they’re making preparations’. But I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t appear that we’ve done that.
“Therefore, we find ourselves today with the European Union looking at us – laughing at us – saying that they have the UK backed into a corner, and now we’re going to have to take the deal that they are going to give to us, rather than the other way around. To the EU it seems as if we’re not properly prepared – and we’re not.”
The problem with this approach is that had the government set out with no-deal as the main policy and planning goal, it would have been seen by industry as a self-fulfilling objective. The car industry was given assurances that 'frictionless' trade would be maintained as a way of persuading them to stay here. No deal would introduce maximum friction. What does the MP for Peterborough think would have happened?
I assume he has no just-in-time manufacturing in his constituency but other MPs do and are no doubt keen not to lose high skilled, well paid jobs.
I think Vara demonstrates that many Tory MPs are still in the delusional stage and have not yet appreciated the dire position we are in. We need less of what we should have done and much more of what we can do now given where we are - and with genuine realism.
