It seemed striking that Jeremy Hunt used the “Brexit” word only once in his speech to the Conservative Party Conference this week, given departing the European Union was in the minds of the Leavers the thing which was going to somehow unleash Mighty Blighty’s economic potential.
And it was fitting, surely, that this one mention was in a section which appeared to be an attempt - albeit what seemed like an unsuccessful one - at humour.
There was also a brief effort to talk up the UK relative to France and Germany and mention this along with Britain’s departure from the single market, but this came across as a schoolboy-like attempt at one-upmanship. It certainly did not prove any benefits of Brexit. Such benefits, of course, remain conspicuous by their absence. The desire to compare the UK with France and Germany appeared to demonstrate an underlying lack of confidence, and chip on the shoulder, on the part of the Tories.
To be fair to Mr Hunt, he was once a Remainer. Being Chancellor in a Tory administration defined by its hard Brexit might at some level be a bit awkward for him, you would imagine, even as he toes the party line on leaving the European Union and relishes being in a position of authority.
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Maybe he felt obliged to say the “Brexit” word once in his speech. He did so in a particularly lame passage, which is saying something given the entirely uninspiring nature of the whole speech.
Mr Hunt declared: “I’m going to surprise you with one equality and diversity initiative of my own - trust me you’ll like this one. Nobody should have their bank account closed because someone else decides they’re not politically correct. We’ll tighten the law to stop people being debanked for the wrong political views.
“The Lib Dems are wrong to want to overturn a democratic Brexit vote. But they still need a cashpoint to withdraw their euros.”
Oh dear. It was pretty sad stuff.
Sadder still, however, was Michael Gove’s continuing attempt to portray Brexit as something wonderful, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
This was his approach in the run-up to the 2016 referendum and he seems to have decided to stick with it. For a while, this approach seemed to work rather nicely for the Conservatives with the electorate but recent polling has signalled people have been waking up to reality.
This week, we have had Mr Gove trying to paint small amounts of funding for towns around the UK as “keeping faith” with Brexit Britain. It has seemed like desperate stuff.
Similarly desperate was his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
Mr Gove declared: “Brexit has been delivered and membership of the world’s fastest-growing trade bloc secured and there is now more than £350 million extra a week for our NHS.”
Brexit has been delivered, sadly, and is taking its toll on the economy and living standards.
And what of membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Mr Gove chose to reference as the world’s “fastest-growing trade bloc”.
This is certainly one of those occasions when people need to look through the bluster and see the numbers.
The UK Government’s own assessment is that joining the Indo-Pacific CPTPP bloc will boost the country’s annual gross domestic product by just 0.08% in the long run.
Office for Budget Responsibility chairman Richard Hughes, when asked in March by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg about how much stronger the UK economy would be had the country stayed in the EU, replied: “We think that in the long run it reduces our overall output by around 4% compared with had we remained in the EU.”
Mr Gove and his fellow Leavers might want to note that 4% is 50 times 0.08%, although they will probably not.
The Theresa May government’s projections, published in November 2018, showed Brexit would, with an average free trade deal with the EU, result in UK GDP in 15 years’ time being 4.9% lower than if the country had stayed in the bloc if there were no change to migration arrangements. Or 6.7% worse on the basis of zero net inflow of workers from European Economic Area countries. There has been a major clampdown on immigration from EEA countries since.
People were also left scratching their heads about the basis for Mr Gove’s claim that more than £350m a week had been made available for the NHS. And the absurdity of this assertion is surely compounded by the fact Brexit is causing great damage to the UK economy and by extension tax revenues.
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So Mr Gove’s claims about Brexit benefits do look not only truly desperate but also entirely hokey.
Rishi Sunak mentioned Brexit five times in his speech.
However, if anyone was waiting for anything credible from the Prime Minister about actual Brexit benefits, they will still be doing so.
He cherry-picked the comparison with France and Germany that was trumpeted by Mr Hunt, declaring the UK had grown faster than France and Germany “not despite Brexit, because of Brexit”.
There was nothing discernible in his speech to justify this assertion, which used up two of his “Brexit” mentions.
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We also had Mr Sunak proclaim: “Our Brexit freedoms make us ever more competitive.”
This baffling assertion had nothing to back it up.
Losing frictionless trade with the UK’s largest trading partner has clearly hampered exporters throughout the country. And loss of free movement of people between the UK and European Economic Area has fuelled skills and labour shortages for companies the length and breadth of the UK, across all sectors.
The last two mentions of “Brexit” were deployed by Mr Sunak as follows: “Brexit was more than a vote to leave the EU: it was a vote to change, to become something more. It was a statement of our belief that Britain could begin a new story - one which reached all parts of our country and everyone in it.
“We must keep making the case for taking back control because if we don’t…our opponents will try and neuter this change - to align us with the European Union so that we never seize the full opportunities of Brexit. We know where Keir Starmer’s heart lies on this issue - and we know he can’t be trusted on it either.”
Brexit has brought a change – a grim one. And it has not enabled the UK to “become something more” but has rather diminished the country and its economy.
Sadly, Labour leader and former Remainer Sir Keir has U-turned on Brexit, and as things stand would not meaningfully unwind the damage done by the Tory folly because he has pledged not to rejoin the single market or customs union.
However, regardless of this, it is the Tories who diminished the UK with their enormously damaging hard Brexit, and who “can’t be trusted”.
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