Tag Archives: nick clegg

Tomorrow morning, Nick Clegg will launch the latest in his series of papers looking at the main issues around Brexit.

He will be covering the issue of security and will look at things like the loss of the European Arrest Warrant and the impact on things like child custody cases and criminal record checks.

This is the fifth paper he has put together as part of his Brexit Challenge to the Government since his appointment as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union in the Summer. The first three can be found here.

He started off in July with a paper that looked at the issues around access to the single market.

Then he looked at what Brexit means for the UK’s trading relationships. 

In October, he outlined what Brexit would mean for the food and drinks sector.

Then last month he tackled the big issue of freedom of movement, saying:

Few people understand the complexities of our relationship with the EU as Nick. He has seen it from inside the European Commission when he worked for the UK’s Trade Commissioner and negotiated trade deals on behalf of the EU with places like China. Then he was an MEP and his five years as Deputy PM gives him an unrivalled experience of how these things work.

Nick Clegg has given a speech at the National Liberal Club today to launch his third report in the Brexit Challenge series. In this one he looks at the impact of hard Brexit on food prices. Here is his speech in full:

Nearly 4 months on from the vote to leave the European Union, we are finally starting to understand the early consequences of Brexit.

In the last week we have seen the government on the back foot, pressed by Conservative MPs to give parliament a say ahead of the triggering of article 50.

We have seen Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, issue the hardest statement yet against giving the UK a sweetheart deal.

And we saw the strongest ripples yet in the currency markets and in business. According to the Financial Times the pound’s effective exchange rate, weighted to reflect the UK’s trade flows, fell to a 168-year low last Tuesday – weaker than the lowest point in the recent financial crisis, weaker than when Britain was ejected from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, weaker even than when we left the Gold Standard in the 1930s.

Perhaps most significantly, the markets seem to have woken up to the looming danger of Hard Brexit, and investors are using their money to punish the government for every perceived misstep, while rewarding decisions that raise the chances of a better deal.

The markets are a powerful new player in this story. They are becoming increasing sensitive to relatively small policy changes. Hence the pound rallied sharply last week as soon as the Prime Minister announced there would after all be a debate ahead of the negotiations, but slipped back again when David Davis put in another Commons performance devoid of any meaningful content.