My Lords, I start by adding my congratulations to my noble friend Lord Cavendish of Furness on his splendid valedictory speech.
Despite what we were repeatedly told by those experts both within and outside this House—that there was not the remotest possibility that the Government could reach an agreement with the EU before 31 December—the Prime Minister and his negotiating team have succeeded in doing just that. In the time allotted to us, I am unable to provide much comment either on the details of the agreement, which, as your Lordships know, runs to 1,200 pages, or the Bill before the House today, which runs to some 80 pages and which I saw for the first time only yesterday.
In my experience, the exact effects of agreements or contracts of this kind are very rarely possible to discern in advance, and the problems usually emerge only following implementation. I am therefore surprised, and even a little cynical, about the detailed analysis provided by those who in the old days were called remainers, who seem not only stuck in the past but have a unique ability to predict the future—but their predictions are only of doom and gloom.
From where I sit, any deal that takes us outside the single market and the customs union, that provides for trade without quotas or tariffs, that excludes us from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, that provides protections for the UK’s internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it, and, at the same time, provides for future co-operation on law enforcement and emerging security challenges, sounds like a pretty good deal. It also sounds remarkably like the Canada-plus deal that the Prime Minister asked for last year but which Mr Barnier told us was no longer available.
What it is, undoubtedly, is an extraordinary political triumph, and I can do no more than offer my congratulations to my right honourable friend the Prime Minister and his negotiating team, led by my noble friend Lord Frost. Like me, the British people can now look forward with confidence to the independent future for which they voted.
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