Today, Green Party MPs tabled an amendment to the Conservative Party’s Opposition Day motion on the upcoming UK/EU summit. The Greens called on the government to confront the ongoing damage of Brexit and to use the summit on the 19th of May as a key step towards practical re-engagement with the EU.
Ellie Chowns, Green MP for North Herefordshire, said:
“Brexiteers promised freedom but delivered decline. Five years on, British families, farmers and firms are paying the price of isolation. At the summit next week, Ministers must choose progress over pride: we must work to re-join the Customs Union, restore the right to live, work and study across Europe, and rebuild the networks that keep Britain secure and prosperous.”
Speaking in the Chamber, co-leader Carla Denyer MP said:
“Given the dire economic impacts of Brexit, including […] the cost of leaving the EU amounting to £1 million an hour in 2022 according to ONS data, will he agree with me that it makes total economic sense for the UK and for the people within it to use next week’s summit to start discussions with the EU on what the process of re-joining might be?”
Key points of the Green amendment include that this House:
- Regrets the £100 billion annual cost in lost output since leaving the EU and that 14% of UK businesses have been forced to stop trading with the EU entirely since Brexit.
- Notes reduced food and agricultural exports have led to an annual loss of £2.8 billion and that food inflation would be 8 percentage points lower had we stayed in the EU.
- Observes that the UK–US agreement fails to compensate for Brexit’s economic damage.
- Notes a confident Britain must work closely with Europe to tackle shared challenges—from the climate crisis to the rise of the hard right.
- Calls on the Government to use the upcoming UK/EU summit to negotiate re-entry to the Customs Union, restore free movement and youth mobility, and rejoin the Erasmus programme.
- Further calls on the government to kick-start talks with the EU on what the formal process to re-join the EU would involve, recognising the consistent majority opinion of the public which reflects a wish to do so.*