My thanks to you, Chair, and to the CEF for this opportunity to address you on this St David’s Day. I am a proud Welsh Conservative, following on from other Conservatives like Geoffrey Howe and Michael Heseltine. I am deeply proud of my roots, and it is with that confidence that I have always seen the need to be part of something even greater, whether it is the United Kingdom or indeed the European Union. I want to thank the CEF for doggedly keeping going through some pretty turbulent years for all of us who remain positive about Europe, whatever the institutional arrangements may be. It is vital for the Conservative Party that CEF continues with its work, as even before the dramatic and historic events of the last week, it has been my belief that we were moving out of what I call the Brexit era and into a new phase in our international relations.
Can I deal firstly with the legacy of the last few years? I make no bones about what I believed was our clear obligation to deliver the result of the 2016 Referendum. The arguments and disputes as to what type of Brexit and the way in which we left are now best left to history. We aren’t going back there, and we need to be very clear about that. Remain and Leave are the divisions of the past. When the PM famously produced a card saying “enough” in that election broadcast Love Actually pastiche in 2019, he was right. With the political decks of Brexit firmly cleared, this should allow us to move on with confidence to outline a positive view of Europe and the world based upon the considerable framework of international arrangements that still bind us to other nations. From the UN right through to NATO, the Council of Europe and the Anglo-French defence treaties, the UK does not act alone. With every treaty signed and every international agreement that we reach, our country is, happily, involved in a series of mutual obligations.
I have already indirectly referred to the crisis in Ukraine, which has already enveloped three European states (don’t forget Belarus) and which is directly affecting EU countries adjoining the region. Whilst this presents the greatest direct threat to the security of Europe since 1989, even including the former Yugoslavia conflicts of the 1990s, the crisis has also served to remind us of the power of European and indeed Western unity. Within the compass of a few days, we have seen an incredible pivot on defence policy from Germany, the active involvement of non NATO but allied nations such as Sweden and the unprecedented decision of the EU to allow arms transfers. The old shibboleth about Western lack of resolve is being laid to rest. These encouraging developments mean that as Conservatives, we should now outline our case with increasing positivity. Now is not the time to downplay or disregard our geographical and strategic ties to Europe, as some newly-minted Party elders would have us believe. Now is not the time to create more disruption to the recently-signed EU withdrawal treaty or our future trade agreement with the EU. Now is the time for Britain to help lead and to play its full part in the collective effort that will be required to ensure that Putin fails.
One of the greatest strengths of the UK has been the independence of our judiciary and our respect for the rule of law. There were times during Brexit when as some of you in this webinar will well remember, these concepts were the subject of strains and tensions. I believe that in the end, the essential resilience of our institutions won through and that it was a supervening political event, namely the Conservative victory in the 2019 General Election, that unblocked the logjam. The aftershocks of that period have continued, most notably in the form of the arguments over the Protocol. Just as in Techtonics, each time we experience an aftershock, it is less severe than the one before. The latest manifestation is the threat to invoke an established provision of the NI Protocol, namely A16. To those who think that this offers a political and structural solution to the clear problems in east/west trade across the Irish Sea, I say be careful what you wish for. Apart from the signal we risk sending to the EU that we remain the disruptors and that the negotiations that culminated in the 2019 Withdrawal Agreement and the 2020 TCA haven’t really finished (wither” Brexit got done”?), the dangers of satellite litigation as to the meaning of the words in A16 with a reference or references to the CJEU are writ large. Whilst I fully acknowledge the concerns of unionists as to the continuing tensions being caused by the operation of the protocol, even a targeted, limited invocation of A16 risks creating prolonged and greater uncertainty that will increasingly be associated with the UK and the current settlement. As a proud and passionate British Unionist, I do not think that we win hearts and minds amongst moderate mainstream opinion in Northern Ireland by the sort of unilateralism that some elements in Unionist politics would have us do. In this climate of conflict and instability in Europe, Britain would be sounding a wrong note by invoking A16.
In this new era of European politics, I want to see Britain working hand in glove with our French and NATO partners on defence matters. I want to see us lead an active and positive reform agenda in the Council of Europe and I want us to recognise that the geographical, commercial, cultural and emotional ties that still and will bind us to the continent of which we are an indelible part are not things to be discarded, but encouraged, as a new Conservative approach to Europe emerges from the ashes of the old.
