Author: johnredwood

I have been sent the results of the votes held at the Thames Valley Business Forum yesterday morning where I spoke for Brexit against a Labour MEP for Remain:

Arrival poll:-

OUT – 34%

IN – 43%

Don’t know – 23%

Exit poll:-

OUT – 58%

IN – 37.5 %

Don’t know – 4.5%

It shows the Business community does have plenty of supporters for Leave who see the damage the EU is doing to many businesses in the UK, or who like many of us want our democracy back.

Mrs Merkel tells us that you never get what you want if you are  not in the room, meaning as a full member of the EU.

So she seems to be telling the USA, China, India and the rest that as they are not members of the EU they will never  get what they want from Germany.

That’s not very diplomatic, and not a  good way to make friends.

Normal countries  build friendly relationships with other countries without seeking to put them under the duress of strict special legal structures.

She also seems to believe the UK has to join the Euro, as we are often not in the room on Euro financial matters.

Of course Germany wants us to stay to help her pay all the bills of this increasingly risky and expensive project.

When we leave I know she will be equally keen to keep all the very profitable trade Germany does with us . Then we will be in a new room negotiating as she seeks to retain the trade advantages Germany currently enjoys. The good news for her is the UK does  not want to impose new barriers on German trade with us.

The OMFIF debate drew an audience of 200 to Westminster yesterday.

The vote at the start of proceedings showed 68% in favour of Remain and just 29% in favour of leaving.

Following the debate, led by myself and Gerard Lyons for Leave, with Lord Adonis and Vicky Pryce for Remain, the vote was 38% for Leave and 60% for Remain, a useful swing of 8%

It demonstrates  that even with an audience of well connected establishment figures it is possible to sway opinion if we have a chance to explain our case properly. As latest research  shows, this was a far from representative audience, as Leave is doing well overall and is ahead in recent polls.

The Remain camp is clearly in panic mode. Donald Tusk tells us in future the EU should drop its plans for political union. Yet this is surely the same Donald Tusk who as one of the 5 Presidents wrote and published an official EU Report on the next steps to political union. This advocates a Euro Treasury and much greater EU integration.

So which Donald Tusk view is the right one? I still believe the 5 Presidents Report, which stays on the website and is official. The latest Donald Tusk speech is clearly just for the referendum campaign. Why did the media run it without pointing out the original Donald Tusk signed the 5 Presidents Report and does believe in much greater EU integration?

If Mr Tusk has truly recanted he should begin by withdrawing the 5 Presidents Report, and replacing it with a vision of a very different EU. That of course would require negotiating an entirely new vision of the EU with all the other Presidents, governments and grandees pressing on for much more EU government.

Now Vote leave is getting some coverage for the many positive things we wish to do for our country once free of EU controls, Norman Smith, Assistant Political editor of the BBC,  pops up to complain that it is as if Brexit is offering some kind of alternative government. He seems to think we are not allowed views on what we do once we are free. On the contrary. The whole point of seeking our freedom is to govern the UK better, spend our own money on our own priorities, set our own taxes and make our own laws. Of course the Leave campaign can and must set out what laws we wish to  change, what taxes we want to  repeal, what spending we will undertake once we are an independent country again.

The policy he most objected to was the new policy announcement of a quota system and points to control numbers of migrants. This approach is designed to be fair to migrants from the rest of the world as well as from the EU. Far from undercutting the present government, leaving the EU is the only way to have a chance of implementing the hugely popular policy of reducing net migration by around two thirds that helped the Conservatives win the last election. Brexiteers wish the government to keep its promise. We have come up with the means to do so. Far from overriding the Conservative Manifesto, we are helping achieve it.

He also seems worried that we want to abolish VAT on certain items. I have news for Mr Smith. Mr Cameron agrees that the tampon tax should go. His problem is the EU still will not let him do that. Again, Brexiteers come to the aid of the government by offering a way for us to simply abolish the tax.

Then there is the VAT on domestic fuel. The Conservatives in the last election campaigned for cheaper fuel, and for measures to boost the living standards of those on low incomes. What better way to achieve  b0th aims than to remove VAT?  We need to leave the EU to do so.

A post Brexit government will of course be different from a Remain government. It will be able to deliver promises made, and be able to boost public services and incomes of people at home when we get our money back to spend as we see fit. We do need to set out what we want to do, and a post Brexit government will need to implement the mandate of the referendum result. Post Brexit, if that is the people’s wish, the government will get on with the 2015 winning Manifesto as strengthened by the proposals mandated by the  Brexit vote.

How many unemployed young people in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy will it take to get the left to condemn Euro area policies?

How many general unemployed throughout the whole EU will it take to get the left on the streets in protest against EU policies?

Where are the UK left voices against the deep recession the European Exchange Rate mechanism inflicted on the UK, and against the banking and credit policies on the continent which damaged our own economy in the crash of 2008 and the Euro crisis of 2011?

Why does the left support the European semester, the policy which demands tight control of budgets and annual reporting to the EU to try to get all countries to conform to a one size fits all budget deficit regime?

In the UK it appears that any cut, tax rise or anti jobs imposition that comes from the EU is just fine, but any that is made in the UK is immediately blamed for all the  evils in our society. The left rightly condemns any evidence of unemployment or low wages at home, yet seems to accept them or turns a blind eye when the damage comes from the EU.

Where is the left’s solidarity with the unemployed youth of Spain , or all those made redundant in Greece by the austerity cuts, or with those who have had to accept actual pay cuts in Euro countries?

Where are the cries of anger over the walls and fences the EU is creating to keep migrants out, to balance the anger about Mr Trump’s Mexican wall rhetoric?

It appears that many on the left apply a double standard. They condemn anything done or said in the US and UK, that they sign up to and even welcome if it is done in the name of the EU.

Tomorrow at 6.30 pm I am speaking at the OMFIF debate at the Institute of Civil Engineers in Westminster.

On Thursday I am speaking at a Thames Valley business breakfast at Bearwood Lakes at 8 am, and at a public debate in the Willink School Burghfield, at 7pm.

I have recently spoken at the PLSA, Thomson Reuters, Politeia,  and Variety Club debates. I have also given pro Brexit speeches in Wokingham Town Hall, in Shinfield, and in Henley Town Hall.

Vote Leave has consistently said it wish to spend more of our own money on the NHS, when we get our net contributions back from the EU. Today they have added the wish to abolish VAT on domestic fuel. This is similar to the post Brexit draft budget I launched under the Conservatives for Britain banner earlier this year, which I reproduce for ease of reference below.

Conservatives for Britain continues the serialisation of its Brexit Manifesto by showing how a future Conservative government could use the £10bn we send to the EU which we don’t get back to end austerity.

The UK currently hands over £19 billion to the EU every year. We get £9 billion back in services and the rebate which means when we Vote Leave we will be able to guarantee all the funding to farmers, universities and regional grants that currently come from the EU and still have £10 billion more to spend on our priorities like the NHS.

The Conservatives for Britain spending suggestions for the first post-Brexit budget include:

£1.1 billion for disability benefits to avoid controversial cuts
£800 million to train an extra 60,000 nurses a year to deal with shortages and excess agency staff
£250 million a year to provide an additional 10,000 doctors a year to deal with doctor shortages and to staff the seven day NHS well
£750 million a year on social care to offering better support for people in their own homes, and for more care home and respite care places.
£200 million to cancel hospital car parking charges
£400 million for dearer medical treatments not currently licensed by NICE, for example cancer treatments such as Proton Beam therapy and Meningitis vaccines
£1.9 billion to abolish VAT on domestic energy, energy saving materials, on converting existing dwellings and on carry cots, children’s car seats and safety seats
£1.5 billion to keep Council Tax down by offering councils the money to pay for a discount on bills they issue
£900 million to remove Stamp Duty on the £125,000 to £250,000 band of home purchase
£500 million should be allocated to a local road fund to support local schemes to improve junction safety and flows, and to provide additional capacity and bypasses on busy roads in congested areas

Commenting, John Redwood said:

‘The UK currently hands over £19 billion to the EU every year. That’s £350 million a week. If we Vote Leave we will be able to spend our money on our priorities like the NHS. We would have an extra £10 billion to spend allowing us to recruit thousands of new nurses and doctors.

‘We would be able to provide the latest cancer treatments that the NHS currently can not afford and provide extra money for people who are frail and need long term care. We would no longer need to make controversial cuts to disability benefits and we could scrap the tampon tax and the EU’s VAT increases on green goods like solar panels.

‘Instead of sending billions abroad each year we should spend that money on improving our NHS and helping families by cutting unfair EU taxes. That’s why the safer choice in this referendum is to Vote Leave.’

The EU is after your money. Look at this decision of the European Parliament’s committee:

“to table corporate tax measuresECON Press release – Economic and monetary affairs − 01-12-2015 – 11:14 

Proper identification of taxpayers is essential to effective exchange of information between tax administrations. The creation of European Taxpayer Identification Number (EU TIN) would provide the best means for this identification. It would allow any third party to quickly, easily and correctly identify and record TINs in cross-border relations and serve as a basis for effective automatic exchange of information between member states tax administrations.”

How is the promised VAT reform coming on, to give the UK some right to choose more lower rates?

The latest statement from the EU is from their expert panel on the proposed VAT reforms which I have already shown here do not mention the UK renegotiation. They say

“Any such unco-ordinated standalone measures adopted by member states would shift focus from  the overriding objective of putting in place a definitive regime at the earliest opportunity. It would create additional distortions within the single market and thereby also increase opportunities for fraud”

So that’s that then. NO VAT reform as promised in the so called renegotiation.

We are on a wild ride to political union. Political union will be expensive. It will mean more EU taxes on UK taxpayers, with our government continuing to protest we are  not in the Union that is taxing us!