Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): I thank my right hon. Friend for all that he is doing to advance UKĀ prosperity and growth, including this Bill. The common fisheries policy sunk many of our fishing boats. Can we have a policy to replace that fleet? The EU policy ripped up many of our orchards with grants. Can we have some UK money and a policy to replant our trees? The EU imposedĀ VATĀ on us and has left us with a burden on our energy. Now surely is the time to use our freedoms and cut VAT.
Jacob Rees Mogg, Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency: My right hon. Friend is right: it is one of our freedoms. In his spring statement, the ChancellorĀ announced some amelioration ofĀ VAT. I will ensure that my right hon. Friendās suggestion is passed on to the Chancellor.
June 24, 2022
Putin has just cut Nordstream 1 to Germany. Is the House discussing the impact this will have on Britain ???
Sanctions do not only cut one way in this instance.
June 24, 2022
Turkstream is closing for a week (for “scheduled maintenance”) too-Europe will not be able to replenish reserves for next winter.
June 24, 2022
the Chancellor would do well to listen and read Sir John’s rather more informed and experienced guidance.
In fact he could suggest he replaces himself?
June 24, 2022
The arrogance of your party defies belief. This Government defies belief. Look at all the trouble signing an international treaty has caused your Rwandan plan and yet against the electorās wishes and after a huge petition, you still plan to sign up to the legally binding WHO treaty. The people of this country know your party has betrayed them and this is why the Conservatives will lose the next election. The question now is how much damage will you do to us until then?
June 24, 2022
UK prosperity requires a seed change in both thinking and action. Yesterdays electorial message has spelt this out in horrifying detail. Taxation, fuel costs, and the NIP require immediate executive action. Anything less and you move from dead in the water to resting broken on the bottom. The UK electorate has been betrayed by a government with a broken compass.
June 24, 2022
That answer sounds like someone who is tied by cabinet collective responsibility and knows we are not taking advantage of the freedoms leaving the EU offers.
Sir John might I enquire why you do not just ask “Why has VAT not been lowered, is it because of the level paying field?”
June 24, 2022
N S ….why has VAT not been lowered …LPF etc., A question which keeps being asked but unless I’ve missed it a transparent answer has not been uttered. Same goes for what we might have been signed up to re Net Zero commitments under the mammoth Trade & Cooperation Agreement perhaps. The lack of transparency & the daily issuance of woolly replies to sensible and valid questions continues.
June 24, 2022
Backbench MPs have to respect providing the opportunity to produce evasive answers.
June 24, 2022
Rees-Mogg acted as a postman, ‘passing on your suggestion’, rather than acting as the Minister for Brexit Opportunities, who ought to be recommending your suggestion, as a real opportunity for us post-Brexit to act independently on tax.
PS It’s ‘sank’, not ‘sunk’ in standard British English.
June 24, 2022
Depends whether there’s an object or not. Compare “U-boats sank many ships in 1942” with “My heart sunk when I heard the PM reply”.
June 24, 2022
Philip P is probably right, in that the difference is between active and passive.
‘Sink’ and ‘Sank’ are both active, present and past tense.
‘Sunk’ is passive, such as something else being the cause, as in ‘The ship was sunk by saboteurs’.
Philip is also right about the post-Brexit postman.
June 24, 2022
No action taken to free UK from EU orbit then. Another waste of taxpayers money paying you both to provide a sham question and answer. As Brexiteers you should be ashamed of going along with this remain pantomime. A wasted vote to get your party in power to deliver Brexit. Last night should give you a glimpse of the future. Suggest you both wake up.
June 24, 2022
Presumably “amelioration” = “reduction”.
How much ?
We need to see the colour of our money.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/spring-statement-2022-speech
June 24, 2022
It is often fascinating to observe the use of vague, non-specific, rarely used language to avoid being direct.
The art of political speak.
June 24, 2022
@ Micky Taking
I would very much hope that Mr Rees Moggs reply was dictated by a civil servant. As we all know, civil servants are not political and are therefore incapable of “political speak”.
It seems that civil servants give an impression of being self serving, evasive and sometimes incompetent. Memo to Mr Sunak … you are the boss ….follow your conservative beliefs and ignore your servants.
June 24, 2022
I can’t help thinking that poor Rees Mogg ahould have been told of his appointment to some funky music and via a tape recorder that self destructed after delivering the message. He doesn’t look like Tom Cruise though…
June 24, 2022
I was so hopeful of the return of wet fish shops after Brexit.
6 years onā¦some hope!
June 24, 2022
Good afternoon.
But nothing for fisheries or farming.
June 24, 2022
Contrast the gulf between the recent Queens Jubilee celebrations in London with the Wakefield and Tiverton by-election results out in the country – where it’s not fun nor funny anymore in modern Britain. Levelling up means nothing especially to those who pay taxes and more to those who don’t.
June 24, 2022
Tiverton by-election doesn’t mean anything. What’s the point of the Liberal Party? And Labour are in shambles (thanks to Blair and the man with the beard – I forget his name now. Corbyn).
But the country needs a strong two-way party system. Why don’t Liberals / Labour join forces and call themselves the Liberal Party or Democrats?
I’m a Tory but I still want a strong opposition to keep our politicians on their toes. There’s no opposition. And we need to get higher quality Tories into politics. How?
June 25, 2022
This is a blame culture – I blame Con Central Office = presumably tick potential MP candidates?
We reap what they sow.
June 24, 2022
So what exactly is your right hon. friend doing to advance UK prosperity and growth .. apart from acting as a postman?
Perhaps he could elucidate with unambiguous public statements.
June 24, 2022
He’s doing very nicely to advance his own prosperity, thank you.
June 24, 2022
An old political campaigner said to me last night the following. When the election result is announced, it is time to stop campaigning and start governing. Unfortunately, no one told Boris. He continues campaigning for the next election, simply to camouflage the fact that he has no idea how to govern. The governing bit was never part of the game. Just like repairing Oxford restaurants after boys had trashed another one the evening before, was never part of that game.
June 24, 2022
Long time to go until the next election acorn.
Mid term blues.
June 24, 2022
Why is the Dept of the Environment not demanding investment in our farming and fisheries industries now that they are no longer under the direct control of Brussels; is it because they are more concerned with saving the planet and appeasing Brussels? There needs to be a complete clearoout of the third rate Dept of the Environment ministers and the civil servants who are clearly working to an agenda inimical to our interests.
June 24, 2022
Mr Johnson refuses to resign following 2 disastrous by-election results, saying he has “more to do”. Most independent economic commentators are now saying clearly that Brexit has been a disaster too, causing long- and short-term problems which, added to Covid, are making a laughing stock of our country and our Prime Minister and making the lives of millions far more difficult than they were before. Does the PM’s “more to do” list include finding and paying for more NHS dentists, more NHS doctors and nurses, including GPs, more teachers and teaching assistants, more care and social assistants, more seasonal workers to harvest our crops and some real positive and quick answers to climate change? Does anyone in government actually care about us any more?
June 24, 2022
Presumably ‘this Bill’ is the one ripping up many of the EU ‘directives’ (i.e. laws) that were imposed on us.
Of course it is right to rip them up. Should have happened much sooner.
Sir John has picked out some important examples of the damage membership of the EU did to us.
I like the reminder about cutting VAT on fuel. I’d rather see it REMOVED!