Tory leadership candidates need to be honest about Brexit & dump the dangerous rhetoric
4 min read
Lib Dem Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake MP has written to all Conservative leadership candidates calling on them to avoid a No-Deal Brexit adding: "What support would a Government under your premiership provide for the thousands of citizens who would likely lose their jobs if the UK left the EU without a deal?".
Any prospective Tory Prime Minister who pulls a cheap trick by talking up a No-Deal Brexit is simply unfit to run for the highest office in the country.
They all know the economic lunacy of No-Deal, and the chaos it would cause across the country.
That’s why I’m calling out these candidates from the start, be honest about Brexit and dump the dangerous rhetoric.
Letter:
I am writing to you regarding a No-Deal Brexit, and your dangerous rhetoric and threat to take the UK out of the EU on October 31st, with or without a deal, if you win the Conservative Party leadership contest and are the next Prime Minister.
As someone who has been privy to the most reliable briefings, due to your position in Government, I am sure you are well aware of the damage a No-Deal Brexit would cause. Indeed, I hope that like me you have met with hundreds of businesses, consumers, organisations and stakeholders, many of whom will have warned you of the difficulties they would face if a Government recklessly allowed the UK to crash out without a deal. We could see severe food and medicine shortages, 17-mile queues of lorries on the M20 and NHS patients facing delays in accessing life-saving treatments, warnings made by some of your Conservative colleagues in Cabinet.
Week by week we see another business announce losses or closures arising as a result of factors linked to Brexit, from JLR to British Steel. The greatest disservice to the people who have lost their jobs or could yet lose their employment would be to pursue a No-Deal Brexit, which the UK’s biggest manufacturing organisation Make UK has described as “economic lunacy”.
If you continue to ignore the reality of a No-Deal Brexit, in return for currying favour with Conservative voters who now prefer the likes of Ann Widdecombe and Nigel Farage to Conservative elected representatives, then many of your constituents would expect you to respond to the following queries. The country is entitled to know your response.
In assessing the benefits to your constituency and the country of helping deliver Brexit, what assessment have you made of the financial impact on your constituents, and the UK more widely, of a No Deal Brexit compared to remaining in the EU?
If you have made no separate assessment, do you agree with your Government’s assessment of a No Deal Brexit? If you do not agree, what evidence do you have that discredits your Government’s assessment?
What support would a Government under your premiership provide for the thousands of citizens who would likely lose their jobs if the UK left the EU without a deal?
How would your Government offset the extra costs and loss of revenue for UK businesses and services, including the NHS, as a result of the steps organisations would have to take to mitigate the damage of a No-Deal Brexit?
As I am sure you understand the true damage of No-Deal, will you state publicly just how much damage the UK economy would have to suffer before you would admit that a No-Deal Brexit is not the right path for this country to take, and the only way to break the deadlock politicians have created is by taking the question back to the country through a People’s Vote?
Finally, please can you confirm when during the EU referendum campaign, you or any prominent Leave supporter highlighted that by voting for Brexit, voters would be giving you permission to take the UK out of the EU, without a deal?
Thank you in advance for your assistance. I look forward to your response.
Tom Brake MP
Tom Brake is the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington. He is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for International Trade & Exiting the European Union
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