Richard Ashworth MEP

#Brexit stands as a cautionary tale to the people of Europe. We must never take peace and prosperity for granted. Value it, fight for it and defend it every day. My speech in #EPlenary this morning:

We must stop pretending that Brexit was just a domestic choice. It was a successful Russian hybrid operation designed to shatter Western cooperation. This betrayal has left both the UK and the EU more vulnerable to aggression. Those who still defend it are idiots or traitors

Brexit’s tragedy: we gambled on free trade just as the world turned protectionist; we dismissed European continental solidarity as the platform for our security just as events made it more important than ever; and we bet the farm on the Special Relationship just as Trump arrived.

New data shows #Brexit has lowered UK GDP by 6-8% over the past decade. Investment down 12-18%, employment down 3-4%. It's even worse than economists had predicted pre-referendum, because they thought there would be a bounce-back long term. "Economists were roughly right on the magnitude of the impact, but wrong on the timing. The consensus pre‑referendum forecast of a 4% long‑run GDP loss turned out to be close to the actual loss after five years, but too optimistic about the longer run." cepr.org/voxeu/columns/…

🔥 So Patrick Minford’s Brexit predictions have materialised 👇 UK car production has fallen to a 69-year low, below 1956 levels. One of 🇬🇧 last major manufacturing sectors is being quietly wound down and we are told this is unfortunate, but inevitable. But it wasn’t inevitable, Brexit ideology caused it. Minford argued before Brexit that Britain should let manufacturing collapse. He said car making was inefficient, that imports would be cheaper, and that consumers would benefit even if whole industries disappeared. Job losses were a price worth paying. This Times article reads like the implementation phase of that theory. “Doubling production to reach a 2035 target looks all but impossible without China’s help.” That single line contains the whole Brexit settlement: • domestic capacity abandoned • dependence normalised • national production treated as optional Car output is now: • down to 717,000 units • Stellantis exiting • Honda gone • Jaguar Land Rover shrinking • EV transition hollowed out by lack of supply chain This is managed industrial decline. Minford said Britain didn’t need to make things, it could just buy them. He said supply chains were global and interchangeable. He said manufacturing was sentimental economics. Brexit didn’t fail, it did exactly what this school of thought intended. And this isn’t just about cars. The same logic is now being applied to: • farming • food security • chemicals • steel • energy • land ownership When people say “Brexit hasn’t delivered”, they’re missing the point. It delivered for those who wanted Britain less productive, more dependent, and easier to strip down.

For all of my life Russia has tried to decouple Europe from America and break the North Atlantic Alliance. It never succeeded. Instead it lost the Cold War, leaving NATO more powerful than ever.  But now success is staring the Kremlin in the face. All thanks to Donald Trump.  Denmark’s Prime Minister says that if Trump tries to take Greenland by force it would destroy NATO. He’s right, of course. The problem is President Trump doesn’t seem to care.  Previous Presidents have toyed with the idea of acquiring Greenland. Harry Truman even made an offer in 1948 — $1.5 billion in today’s money, since you ask. The Danes turned him down.  But Trump is the first President to threaten force if he can’t get what he wants by negotiation.  Nobody should underestimate the catastrophic consequences for NATO if its leading member annexed the territory of a smaller member. It would be the abnegation of everything NATO is meant to stand for.  Nobody denies Greenland is gaining in strategic importance to America. Melting ice is opening up new sea lanes around it of growing geopolitical and economic significance. It sits almost midway in the Arctic region between Russia’s northern coast, with its intercontinental ballistic missile bases, and the US mainland. It is on the approach route to America should these missiles ever head this way. It’s why America already has a crucial Space Force base in Greenland.  So when it comes to Greenland the US obviously has skin in the game. But the crucial point is that, in security terms, America can have whatever it wants in Greenland without annexing an ally against its will.  After it turned down Truman, Denmark signed up to the 1951 Greenland Defence Agreement (renewed in 2004). It gives the US the right to build as many bases as it wants and station unlimited numbers of military folk there. During the Cold War around 15,000 US person were based in Greenland. It’s now 200.  Trump claims Greenland is under threat from imminent takeover by China and/or Russia. It isn't, of course.  They haven’t seen a Chinese ship up there for 12 years. But if Trump truly believes it, there's nothing to stop him from ramping up US military assets in Greenland back to Cold War levels or more. Moreover his European Nato allies are on side – the defence of what's being called the 'High North' does need to be bolstered. That's why they sanctioned some extra troop deployments to Greenland last week, a small first step to increase Nato resources in the Arctic.  But instead of welcoming the move, Trump inexplicably saw it as a threat to America, designed to thwart his ambition to grab Greenland.  So he slapped penal tariffs on the UK and seven other NATO allies. He always puts higher tariffs on America’s friends than its enemies   The Trump administration depicts Greenland as a defenceless frozen waste in danger of being picked off by NATO’s enemies. It’s a nonsense.  Greenland is a self-governing Danish protectorate. As such it is fully covered by NATO security guarantees, including the all-important Article 5 — which says an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Yet Trump still wants to grab Greenland, all part of his mission not just to be Imperial President of the USA but Imperial Overlord of the whole Western Hemisphere.  In an almost deranged message to Norway’s prime minister today he even suggests he’s keener than ever because Norway denied him the Nobel Peace Prize. There is no dealing with such nonsense. Europe and Canada will need to start preparing for a NATO without America, embracing all the extra defence spending that will entail.  Under Trump America is on the brink of becoming the enemy, not our most important ally. As a lifelong supporter of the US it is chilling to write and say such words.  The stakes could not be higher. As I speak there is despair in European capitals and delight in Moscow. That should tell you everything about the dangerous watershed we’ve now reached.

This is the reality Britain 🇬🇧 was sold out of. 🇪🇺 EU = 46% of UK trade 🇺🇸 US = 18% 🌍 Rest of world = 36% Trump’s tariffs are noise by comparison. Brexit cut us off from our main market 👉permanently. That’s why Britain is weaker, poorer, and easier to bully.

BBC Bias is often in the eye of the beholder So let’s stick to measurable facts During 10 yrs of debate about Brexit, BBC QuestionTime had Britain’s Members of the European Parliament on the show 50 times Every single one was from the pro Brexit minority 23 times Farage

The UK now spends more per week on extra ("red tape") import/export customs declarations, alone, from leaving the customs union, alone, than it did on its weekly EU contribution... although that is falling as UK export trade into the EU continues to fall away.

Nathan Gill's barrister reportedly now expects him to be jailed. If so, he'll be the third former Ukip MEP to go to prison for offences of dishonesty, following Tom Wise and Ashley Mote.

We left the EU. When we did so we did not have return agreements with 27 member states. We need to speak more about the fact that leaving the EU didn’t only savagely damage the economy but it also made it easier for economic migrants to come here and harder to return them. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Break ! 🇪🇺🇺🇸 agree deal Trump "It's the biggest deal ever made" Von der Leyen : "We are the world's two biggest economies" The supreme irony of it being signed in the UK of all places ! which deliberately excluded itself from "the biggest deal ever made"

It cost £154m to build a giant, fenced slab of concrete in a field in Sevington. - to act as a border inspection lorry park for purposes of a just-in-case Brexit scenario. It now looks likely to be sold. Thanks for the eye-watering waste, Brexit. kentandsurreybylines.co.uk/politics/brexi…

Today was #Brexit Referendum Day in 2016. A Check List so far ... 9 years on. The Gullible were Conned By Lies. It's okay to admit you were wrong, now.

A reminder of just how blatant the Leave campaign lies were, in the 2016 referendum:

Nigel Farage ranked 748th of 751 MEPs for attendance, went to 1 of 42 fishery committee meetings & was fined £35K for fiddling his expenses As an MP he has held no surgeries, skipped 80% of votes and had ten jobs on the side Don't vote Reform unless you like work-shy grifters

Which is more important for UK trade? ONS figures: 🇬🇧 goods exports: 16.2% to US, 48% to EU 🇬🇧 goods imports: 9.7 % from the US, 55% from EU 🇬🇧 services exports: 27% to US, 36% to EU 🇬🇧 services imports: 19.5% from US, 45% from EU Rachel Reeves is right on this

Rosalie Chapman's call to rejoin the EU is a must watch - one of the best speeches by a young person 👏 "Years ago, the people of this country made a choice" "A choice that has left us isolated, diminished and weaker than before" "To those who voted leave, I say this. You were lied to" "Not just misled, not just misinformed. Lied to" "Do not forget the promises emblazoned on buses and broadcast in campaign ads" "Promises of £350 million a week for the NHS" "Promises of trade deals so plentiful they'd fall in our laps" "Promises of an economy unshackled from EU bureaucracy" "Promises of falling migration, promises of sovereignty restored, and promises that Britain would reclaim its place as a leader on the world stage" "Every single one of those promises was broken" "And today we bear that cost" "They will tell you that this country was broken and they fought to fix it" "The reality is they broke it and now we have to fix it" "If you voted to regain sovereignty, instead, you got borders that have never been more porous" "If you voted to cut migration, instead you have a doubling of net migration since 2016" "If you voted for 350 million pounds a week for the NHS, instead you have an NHS in crisis, understaffed, underfunded and overwhelmed" "Ambulance wait times, the longest on record" "Cancer care, the longest on record" "If you voted for bold new trade deals, instead, you got five new trade deals, dwarfed in scale by the unparalleled access we once enjoyed with the European single market" "If you voted for a trade revolution, instead, you got a trade collapse" "If you voted for a booming economy, instead, exports have plummeted, small businesses are suffocating in paperwork and industries like fishing, once the poster child of Brexit, are being decimated by domestic tariffs and quotas" "If you voted for a Great Britain, you were left with a little Britain" "Ladies and gentlemen, this is not sovereignty, this is not controlled, this is not opportunity" "Let's call it what it is, a total national tragedy" "By 2035, Brexit is predicted to have cost the UK 300 billion pounds" "That is not a distant abstraction. It is a fiscal black hole that will impact every community, every classroom, every hospital bed in this country" "The pound has plummeted, our exports have fallen by 15% and foreign investment is slipping through our fingers" "40,000 jobs in London lost" "2 million jobs nationwide lost" "These are mere statistics. Until it's you" "They say that Brexit hasn't changed much, but tell that to the single mother in Manchester skipping meals to feed her children, as the average person is 2,000 pounds worse off than each year" "Tell that to the small business owner in Birmingham, a steel parts manufacturer struggling to survive" "After losing European clients and facing regulatory chaos that has crushed his trade" "Tell that to the cancer patient in Bristol whose life saving treatments has been delayed because the NHS is short of 4,000 European doctors" "And tell that to the young graduate in Liverpool stuck in a dead end job because opportunities to work, study and live abroad evaporated" "These aren't just numbers, they are lives disrupted, dreams deferred and futures stolen" "Brexit has robbed a generation of its future" "My generation" "Your generation" "Our generation" "The Erasmus scheme scrapped" "Horizon Europe funding scrapped" "And let us not forget the most personal loss of all our rights as EU citizens" "The fettering of our freedom to live, work and thrive across 27 countries. Gone" "Now we have less rights than no thank you than our parents enjoyed" "And that is atrocious, because this isn't just about economics" "It is about identity" "It is a debate of hearts and a debate of minds" "Brexit has not only shrunk our wallets, it has shrunk our role in the world" "And we have lost a seat at the table. Instead of leading, we are following" "Instead of shaping the global agenda, we are reacting to it" "Instead of being a voice of authority, we are a nation on mute" "Nobody mentions the UK anymore" "We have made ourselves irrelevant. Members" "These are not my words" "They're Sir Richard Dearloves, the former head of MI6, and he could not have put it clearer. Irrelevant" "He could not have put it more alarmingly irrelevant" "And now, Brexit has not just failed, it has been rejected" "Rejected by Brexiteers and rejected by remainers" "Even Marine Le Pen, the firebrand of French Euroscepticism, has given up on Brexit, admitting that leaving the EU is a surefire path to disaster" "And the British people know it too" "Polls after poll tell the same story" "Out of 233 polls conducted in the last three years, 200 and thirty show majority support for rejoining. And here's the most damning fact of all" "Just one constituency, one constituency, one Constituency out of 632 thinks Brexit was the right choice" "I will concede, however, that the EU is no silver bullet that will terminate all our sorrows, or a shining beacon that will fix every mess. No members" "The EU is not perfect and it never was. But it is better" "Better together in trade, as part of the largest economic block in the world" "Better together in science, where collaboration knows no borders" "Better together in security, where unity strengthens our defenses against petty tyrants and expansionist dictators" "And better together in spirit, where shared challenges are met with shared solutions" "This is not the time to cling to the isolationist fantasies of a little Britain" "It is time to live up to the true meaning of our name here in a bold Britain, we embrace our fellow Europeans, rejecting the suffocating confines of xenophobic rhetoric" "Where in a brave Britain, we embrace our global responsibilities and forge alliances that champion unity, we're in a Great Britain" "We are not shackled by the weight of our past, but are propelled by the promise of an open, outward looking future" "So what would this look like? Simple" "There would be another referendum, not necessarily this year, not necessarily in two years, but at some point in our future" "Voters would receive a fact checked information booklet with details about the vote, what it would mean and accompanied by by party positions" "And those who are skeptical, let me say this" "A strong Britain needs a strong Europe, and a strong Europe wants a strong Britain" "So members, if you seek a more prosperous economy, if you seek a more welcoming country, if you seek more personal freedom, reopen your hearts to Europe, members, reach out your arms to Europe, members, unclench your fists to Europe" "Because before long, and no doubt within our lifetimes, the arguments which are being traded tonight will be played out before the country as a whole" "So if there is anyone who doubts Britain's desire to re enter the eu, who still wonders if the dreams of unity are alive in our time, and who questions whether hope can triumph over the bitterness of our past, let tonight be that answer" "I beg you, members, vote to rejoin the European Union" "Thank you"

Brexit is Brexit, as they used to say. Five years on it looks fairly disastrous. 🇬🇧

The unbelievable hypocrisy of the Daily Express. They campaigned for Britain to leave the EU - and now they complain that, post Brexit, we’re left out of EU projects!