Last\nweek I attended the regular meeting of our Association Executive Council and I\nupdated members on progress of the Brexit negotiations. This is a summary of what I told them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since\nthe previous meeting I have received well over 1,000 emails and letters, from\nboth Leavers and Remainers, urging me to vote for various outcomes. The constituency, like the rest of the\ncountry, is divided about the way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nhave also been lobbied by local businesses who are increasingly concerned about\nthe continuing uncertainty, two and half years after the referendum. They want to know what new tariffs may apply\nin the event of \u201cno deal\u201d, and what certification is likely to be required at\nports of entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preparations\nto cope with disruption in the event of \u201cno deal\u201d are now intensifying. I attend regular meetings on \u201cOperation\nBrock\u201d with the Police, the Roads Minister and officials from the Highways\nAgency, KCC and the ports. Work is\nnearly complete on the M20 contraflow, and the M26 will be closed and used as a\nlorry park as the third option once the M20 contraflow and Manston Airport\nparking are full. I have asked for\nfurther work to be done to minimise the effect on the A25 through the\nconstituency. There are also plans in\nplace to prioritise imports of food, medicines and other essential goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nhave been fully involved in the ongoing debate. \nI spoke in the debate on the Withdrawal Agreement and I\u2019ve written two\narticles in the Daily Telegraph setting out my concerns with the original text\nof the Agreement. I continue to discuss\nmy concerns in meetings with those involved, including Ministers, officials and\nlast week the Irish Ambassador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everybody\nis finding these negotiations frustratingly slow (and they are not helped by EU\nintransigence). They were, however,\nalways going to be difficult: no country\nhas ever left the EU before and no two bordering countries anywhere in the\nworld operate different customs and tax regimes without some border checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nParliament and in both the main parties there are hard-line views on both\nsides. Some Remainers want a second\nreferendum but this would be equally divisive and I do not support a\n\u201cre-run\u201d. Others want the UK to leave\nwithout a deal: that is not our policy, and indeed is not what the Leave\ncampaign itself favoured: they wanted \u201ca careful change, not a sudden\nstop\u201d. My own view lies in the middle:\nwe must absolutely respect the referendum result but agree an orderly exit that\nminimises the cost to business and any disruption here in Kent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nmy view the original Withdrawal Agreement was not compatible with our\nobligations to the Union and did not give us sufficient clarity about the terms\nof our future trading arrangements with the EU: I therefore voted against\nit. The Prime Minister is now committed\nto achieving a better deal: if she can achieve that, even if it involves a\nshort delay, I will support it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week I attended the regular meeting of our Association Executive Council and I updated members on progress of the Brexit negotiations. This is a summary of what I told them. Since the previous meeting I have received well over 1,000 emails and letters, from both Leavers and Remainers, urging me to vote for various … Continue reading “Brexit Update”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2529,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528\/revisions\/2529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}