The government has said that by 2040 the reset will bring benefits of £9 bn to our economy. That is just 0.3% of Gdp spread over 14 years, or 0.02% a year. Why bother?
In practice it will be a loss to the UK as this assessment of benefits leaves out the costs. There will be a financial contribution to the EU to pay for it. There is the surrender of our fish for another 12 years leaving us short of fishing revenue. There is the very expensive Erasmus scheme to help more EU students than UK students replacing the much better and much cheaper Turing scheme for UK students we currently enjoy .
Worst of all is the wish to sign us up to the very costly EU carbon trading scheme. This will put up the UK carbon tax which will speed the closure of more UK businesses relying on gas and on petrochemicals. Adopting a version of the carbon border tax will make our imports from non EU dearer, as it is an expensive tariff. What happened to the government’s focus on the cost of living?
Integrating our electricity industry more with the energy short continent will make us more dependent on expensive imports.
The SPS changes on food exports and imports are unlikely to simplify or reduce costs by much as we will be forced to adopt the EU schemes which requires extensive use of vets and certification in a very bureaucratic package. We also need good food safety rules.
The EU is anti innovation. Accepting their rules on farming and business could cut us off again from important new ideas and science being pioneered in the US.
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February 4, 2026
The majority in parliament of all parties were against Brexit. The civil service and big business is pro the EU. Starmer did his utmost to reverse Brexit and now he’s doing just that.
From treacherous Mays surrender to Johnsons oven ready sellout, we’ve never really left the EU
At every juncture 2TK is costing us money with absolutely no gain for us.
Reform must make it abundantly clear that it will reverse all this treachery and revert to WTO rules.
These attacks on jobs and business has to stop
We are heading for insurrection.
February 4, 2026
Reform need to be clinically careful about who they take in from the Tories at any level. I still believe certain people should be making the tea for some years, not in any position with influence. Braverman probably safe along with Kruger.
We just can’t get into a position where third parties in the US, EU or just on the edge of the banking business etc. influence the game as we’ve seen in the last few days. Our system needs to change, direct democracy and closer links between people and government are perfectly possible to negate undue influence.
Mountbatten Windsor is a complete distraction/red herring. Who the hell cares so long as he’s not costing us?
February 4, 2026
…..and its working ….at PMQs nobody is talking about that China visit ?
February 4, 2026
@Ian Wragg – they still are against the UK being Sovereign and Independent as it means they then don’t have to manage and make decisions. They get back to free-loading on the backs of others. We have never been permitted to have Brexit stand on our own two feet.
Most of the UK is confident about making their own mistakes, it happens, you address them and you move on. The mistakes of the unelected unaccountable, are just dumped on everyone never addressed.
February 4, 2026
Agree, the contempt that this labour government and the past tories have towards the referendum is beyond belief, beyond words ….and they still call themselves honourable
February 4, 2026
3TK Farage and 4TK Trump and 5TK Putin and 6TK Lib Dems and Scottish Nationalists and Elon Musk and China are just as bad.
Stick to Conservative Party! The nearest (although imperfect) 1TK there is!
February 4, 2026
Even for you, this is a mad post.
February 4, 2026
I think it’s mad to put the future of our country in the hands of Nigel Farage over the Tory Party. Sure, the Tory Party got big probs but can be fixed.
We need to return to good, old British Conservative values in general (not just politics – everything).
February 4, 2026
The government has said that by 2040 the reset will bring benefits of £9 bn to our economy.
Well hopefully by 2028 or sooner this government is consigned to the dustbin for a very very very long time and any arrangements it makes with the dreaded EU is also consigned to the bin, they really do take the British people to be as thick as they are in Parliament we put them there and by God we will remove them at the first chance we get
February 4, 2026
Yes, let’s not read too much into 2040 time period, even the EU know they are being uncompetitive, according to Euro news. However, no doubt 2TK will be delighted to shovel our money at them for no benefit.
Entertainingly, France is slipping into ‘3rd World’ economy status — https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2165935/panic-france-economy-spirals-third-world-status
Even so, they pay LESS for the national debt than we do.
February 4, 2026
‘Removing them’ won’t do what is needed and neither will unpicking commitments by recent governments. No right of centre party is committed to a comprehensive Reform Act addressing all damaging constitutional reform and legislation. Be prepared to be disappointed.
February 4, 2026
The problem is that there are a lot of thick Brirish people amongst the electorate, who will continue to vote for thick liberal/left MPs.
February 4, 2026
I hope we are behind the curve on the EU.
In my more optimistic moments I think the EU is going to tear itself apart with its deindustrialisation, debt, deconstruction of society, and all the rest. In 4-5 years the EU may be very widely seen as past its usefulness and new politicians may have garnered enough power to act.
It’s typical of modern Britain that our establishment wants to chain us ever closer to the EU just when it looks like the project is on a terminal trajectory.
February 4, 2026
It’s definitely got the death rattle.
February 4, 2026
When you look at the randomity of the things our PM gets us involved in, their cost and the plain vanity of the ideas behind them that fix nothing while by observation very little real thought has gone into them other than from a viewpoint of globalisation, the term ‘BULL in a china shop’ comes to mind.
Warped socialist concepts are behind the pointless alleged reset.
It’s enough to make you physically ill that after so much struggle to get even a very limited BREXIT, our PM is giving it all away for no advantage and at a great cost to us – it’s the stuff of nightmares.
February 4, 2026
The socialists have some competition. For instance the idea that the countryside is too white has been identified and addresses by one Tamara Finkelstein, sister of (Lord) Daniel Finkelstein, as Permanent Secretary of DEFRA,
February 4, 2026
Good morning.
This is all drivel by the ‘Eurofanatic’ Civil Service. This, or any government, does not have the wit to understand any of the things you mention, let a lone anything else. They are completely captured not knowing anything and having to rely on the CS for advice and now policy.
There needs to be a massive purge in the upper echelons of the CS.
February 4, 2026
Sorry, I meant ‘driven’ not drivel although this could be a Freudian Slip 😉
February 4, 2026
Starmer is doing what he said he would do.
How many Brexit voters blindly voted Labour yet again I wonder.
Having said that, Labour/Cons/Lib Dems take your pick ,because as someone else has already pointed out, the majority in Parliament never wanted to leave the EU. The colour of the rosette, as in many policy areas is all that differentiates between them.
The EU for them was beneficial and as Parliament is full of those who couldn’t give a jot about this nation and its people (we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in if they did) what is most beneficial to them is the prime reason for clinging on to EU for dear life.
The EU big wigs won’t care too much that we are not officially on the books anymore, they are getting what they want and we will be gradually caught up in their web again.
I only hope someone is keeping a close eye on the small print and we don’t have a Brexit saga all over again when trying to undo it all. If we get the chance.
I did see reports where they were hankering after a Farage clause, presumably to ensure he couldn’t get us out if he became PM. It wouldn’t surprise me, but then it could have just been a piece of sensationalism by journalists with a slack day.
February 4, 2026
This is just the precursor to the next step the Establishment will attempt: signing us up as an Associate Member when the two-tier EU is created, post the Ukraine War.
The next Government (if we are permitted a General Election, which seems increasingly doubtful) must scrap this “reset” and actually LEAVE the EU.
February 4, 2026
If there is no election it will be because of civil unrest, not because the political class stopping it.
The people might well stop it because we want to sweep the whole political class aside.
February 4, 2026
All very practical points, Sir John. But you should realise Starmer’s Gang don’t give tuppence for such considerations, these petty details. The gang operates on a much higher and more worthy plane. It is riddled with Fabians who drive the gang’s political agenda. The Fabian ambition is to replace sovereign nation states with a global socialist order ruled by people such as Starmer, Hermer and Reeves. The EU’s supranational anti-democratic governance is a pre-formed vehicle enabling it to realise this ambition. As in Stalin’s USSR the EU can be national in form, socialist in content. This concept, also known as socialist realism, was formally proclaimed by the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934.
Starmer’s Gang and the Woke Left have formed an unholy alliance with political Islam, and from Islam it has taken the concept of taqqiya, enabling it to adopt the language needed to deceive with a clear conscience the public into believing it is acting in their interests.
And don’t count on there being a general election in 2029. There is nothing in law to stop Starmer’s Gang staying in office a great deal longer if it so chooses.
February 4, 2026
Yes, completely agree Sir John.
Unfortunately coming here and raging about these idiots currently in charge isn’t going to change a damned thing, much as I wish it would
February 4, 2026
It is obvious what Starmer is doing. He is employing the most blinkered Energy Secretary in the form of Ed Miliband anyone has ever come across. Miliband is fixated on deindustrialisation via energy penalty costs.
Everyone in the energy industry knows more natural gas and domestic oil production s needed to maintain energy security and reliability. Because that is the case Ed has made it known those fuels are to be closed down. The penalty costs placed on oil and gas producers via windfall tax, has resulted in the accelerated decline of what was once our key industry in Scotland. It contributed £billions in employment tax and £billions in corporation taxes for the government. No more since the Net Zero legislation was brought in and zealously applied by Labour Greens and Liberal Dem advocacy.
The ongoing push by Starmer to add us back into the EU conditions and controls on trade is simply another route to deindustrialisation of the UK Our dependency on imports will be fundamental to our most basic needs. Labour are on a mission to destroy the UK economy, they have no red lines and they have to be stopped.
February 4, 2026
Why do our politicians want to outsource the management of the UK to foreign politicians ?
Perhaps because they have no confidence in their own ability, and thus cannot be blamed for failures ?
We no longer have a Nanny State, we have a Nanny Government .
February 4, 2026
No SJ – Brexit is the dIsaster for UK – ten years down the road and still no sign of Reees Mogg’s sunny uplands or IDS prediction that the German car workers would storm Mrs Merkels office or that we’d have that special deal with the US – we were horribly lied to.
Reply Trade up, Gdp up, no collapse of house prices or big recession as Remain predicted.
February 4, 2026
However, 20,000 German Car Workers have taken voluntary redunancy at VW – and VW want another 15,000 by 2030. These numbers do not include all those Germans that work at companies dependent on VW business.
The flagship economy of the EU is struggling and it’s hard to see how things will get any better soon.
February 4, 2026
as Elon has posted unlimited immigration and unlimited state benefits leads to a fail state, and that is very much where the UK and EU are at the moment.
as for Brexit it has been obvious from the day of the vote that the entire ruling blob were going to fight it, and would eventually win. the poor quality candidates all the main parties select to stand for elections are bound to lead to chaos and no resistance to the blob.
we need a complete reset, drain the swamp, its a far bigger problem than a simple election result can solve.
February 4, 2026
Parliament is stuffed with Remainiacs in hoc to the EU. Starmer will do all he can to put us back in. You can be assured the public will have no say.
The only hope is this rotten shambles of a government collapses, the sooner the better.
February 4, 2026
the blob of senior public sector officials are ignoring politicians and running their own agenda regardless of what the politicians say. the government is not really in charge of much.
February 4, 2026
Time for honesty Parliament wants the UK back under EU control, laws and orders by any means so they can go back to sleep.
Every reset is not a reset it is a submission at great cost, taxpayer cost, democracy and sovereignty cost.
Can those we pay and empower(MPs) honestly think that the EU ordering the UK how to govern and what laws to abide with inside its own boundaries, nets the UK Citizen, the UK Taxpayer one iota. Its all expense, expense and imposition for no gain.
February 4, 2026
Only a Government of fools and idiots could see rejoining the EU as the future. Starmer is utterly dishonest and is now doing what he wanted to do in 2016, reversing the will of the people, who voted out. By a modest margin in 2016 after a disgusting Government campaign, but by a huge margin at the 2019 GE.
When only the Blair/Brown Government is as bad as the current one, the UK is headed for a major crash. No Government reversed the Blair/Brown Goverment’s shocking dilution of Parliament powers by creating Quango after Quango, now carried on by Starmer. Reform and the Conservatives need to state publicly and consistently that they will reverse or scrap any agreement with the EU, and pay no compensation, or honour any financial commitment made by Labour. What a horrible person Starmer is!
February 4, 2026
Our Politicians seek power yet in the next breath they subcontract Government to the EU
February 4, 2026
Has anyone else noticed the smoke screen, 2TK wants the UK to join the EU’s defence projects. You have to ask why, is it because Parliament has run down the UK’s ability to defend itself it has become ultra reliant in hope that others will come to our aid if we cosy up to them. Or is it it as reported there is now said to be a Defence Budget in 2026 ‘black hole'(another black hole) of £28bn.
How does the defence budget running out of money square up increasing spend to meet our commitment to NATO, or is it that the money to Mauritius has to come from Defence Spending. Then how does the UK’s shortfall in money square up to paying the EU money for their defence. 2TK has promised if he is re-elected in 2028 sometime in the next Parliament the aim is to get spending upto 3%
There is already talk of pulling or pausing the deal with Japan and Italy for the next generation of jet fighters to save money. The much trumpeted UKAS submarine deal has hit the rocks even the Australian Government see the UK letting them down.
Lets face it Parliament and their chosen Government isn’t in control because they don’t know what it means to control, to manage, to budget. They have expenditure running wild, their chosen leader running wild promising the World UK taxpayer money, while at the same time removing the UK’s ability to earn money to pay for all these ‘Gifts’
February 4, 2026
I didn’t even mention the alignment to EU Food Standards, the costs to our food bills all for nothing other than 2TK’s ego
February 4, 2026
“Worst of all is the wish to sign us up to the very costly EU carbon trading scheme”.
Yes, this is all part of the false CAGW agenda and its “solution”, Net Zero, designed to destroy our energy, economy and national security. Just as bad is the proposed re-introduction of freedom of movement which, together with our most generous benefits system is designed to ensure the immigration of all the illegal migrants that Spain and possibly other EU countries are giving nationality. Unfortunately we have suffered, and continue to suffer, from decades of governments and Parliaments each time supporting EU membership, Net Zero and mass immigration. Even illegal immigration. As one wag put it “There’s no point in voting as the government always wins”. Furthermore, we don’t even know everything that is happening to us as so much could be, or is, hidden by super injunctions. If 40,000 Afghans can be brought into the country under the cover of a super injunction, anything is feasible.
February 4, 2026
The British Establishment sought and received explicit instruction from the British Sovereigns.
LEAVE – the instruction was pellucidly clear and understood – the then PM said that ‘the day after the vote we would be out of the EU’. All ties, responsibilities, liabilities severed.
The refusal to obey this explicit instruction is very dangerous.
The country is being damaged and undermined daily in every way, politically, economically, intrinsically.
The nation KNOWS who to blame for this destruction.
Those in the firing line seem to be too stupid to comprehend the danger.
February 4, 2026
“by 2040 the reset will bring benefits of £9 bn to our economy”
By 2040 I doubt that Europe will have even the state of wealth it does now. The two best writers I can cite on this are Gail Tverberg [blog Our Finite World] and Tim Morgan [blog Surplus Energy Economics]. She’s a retired actuary and has been writing on this topic for 20-25 years. He’s a retired head of research and oil and gas analyst from Tullett Prebon and started his blog 15-20 years ago.
The future in my view will be less globalised and centralised than it has been since the 1990s and the extreme globalisation that followed that for around 30 years. Political parties that appreciate reality and stop selling us snake oil, ahem ‘economic growth’ may have an advantage, although how they sell it to voters, having promised them the opposite is a ‘challenge’. Gross national happiness would be a more worthy aim than the GDP which comes from often useless (but measurable) activities.
I’m afraid that since 2020 the word ‘reset’ triggers me. This reflects its use by that man Schwab from the World Economic Forum he set up in 1971. He had to resign for financial irregularities, I gather.
February 4, 2026
USAID stopped the $80 million patio the WEF.
February 4, 2026
Hi sir john
How can one man determine what the country does where are the other party to prevent the reversal of a democratic vote
Why aren’t the house of Lords doing something?
February 4, 2026
Question: will adopting the EU carbon border tax put us in breach of our CPTPP and other trade agreements ?
February 4, 2026
I do believe that sometime ago an ex-world leader once suggested that the EU is a replacement for the failed and defunct USSR.
That leader was none other than Mikhail Gorbachev, one time President of the USSR. He was not joking.
February 4, 2026
Can we be an independent country please.
Like the vast majority of nations on the planet.
I’m happy for the UK to freely enter into mutually beneficial trading agreements with other nations.
But I want our laws to be made here in my country where I have a direct vote every few years for a person I want to be my representative in my Parliament.
February 4, 2026
+1
February 4, 2026
As the rest of the Playbook is being introduced in a Parliament that has lost its way and purpose, they need in today’s climate take the next step, bring on the Ministry of Truth
Quotes from George Orwell’s 1984 Ministry of Truth “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past,” as the Ministry constantly alters records and media to maintain Party power, making truth subjective.
We any one in Parliament any longer know the truth!
February 4, 2026
We are not supposed to notice. But as Lynton Crosby a ghost from the past was always keen on pointing out ‘dead cat on the table’, the distraction so as not to think.
To-days media is filled with nothing but distractions, distractions to deflect away from a Parliament that is not working for the Country or its People
February 4, 2026
Agree, all smoke n’ mirrors, nobody has been charged with a crime ….and nobody is talking about the EU sell out and the China visit ….Starmer couldn’t have asked for a bigger distraction
February 4, 2026
IB :
Correct. I tend to believe that many of Sir Keir’s u-turns result from ‘dead-cat-on-the-table’ announcements made with the intention of distraction followed by a planned u-turn, also a distraction. Others, Sir Keir just hopes we all forget.
February 5, 2026
This government seems intent on destroying this country and its economy, it’s as though there’s a force that is controlling them because I find it difficult to understand why they’re doing these crazy things. The purpose of a government is to protect its citizens and build a strong and stable economy. They are doing the opposite, why?
For us to grow, the heating costs must be lowered to allow businesses to survive. Labour are, I believe, on a course to destroy the economy, our very foundations, our beliefs, our pride and our British population.
February 12, 2026
Dear Lord Redwood,
This morning on Radio 4’s Today programme in an interview with Lord Jim O’neill, the presenter made this statement in response to a Telegraph article suggesting the Chancellor was seeking closer ties with the EU.
‘It seems to be incontrovertible that things like trade have fallen [with the EU].’
He then asked
‘To what extent has that become an attractive option for a PM and chancellor keen to promote growth?’.
The first statement is false since trade with the EU is up since Brexit and ignores the nuances of bad policy and that our service exports have actually grown strongly. The question is clearly biased to be pro-EU.
I will submit a complaint. But I know I will receive some wishy washy response from an intern picking one tiny point in which this very general statement may apply.
Its true that some small businesses experience more admin due to Brexit, including my own wine company. Importing wines from the EU has become admin heavy since EU wines are now treated like the rest of the world, we need more paperwork and ABV values to calculate duty. These are all however stupid domestic policies we could get rid of overnight.
We won’t though. I mentioned this to a woman I met at a wedding who works for DEFRA and was involved in deciding what paperwork and tests were needed to import wines. When I implored her that we should make things easier not harder when we left the EU, she said ‘Well that’s what you get.’
I was flabbergasted that the bitter civil servants who are pro EU would harm our country to prove a point. This country is tearing itself apart from the inside.
All best wishes. I was very glad to hear you had been elected to the Lords.
Tom
Reply Yes I heard the lie about trade. I often refute it when I have airtime to do so.