John Baron MP: Three questions that will not go away

MP seeks answers over Chequers Agreement

Since the Chequers Agreement was published, John Baron MP has been attending briefings, asking questions of the Prime Minister in the House of Commons and elsewhere, and questioning Cabinet Office civil servants on the substance of the Agreement.

In particular, he is awaiting answers from civil servants to the following three questions that he has posed:

• John has asked what percentage of our goods would be subject to the ‘Common Rule Book’ and, by way of illustration, has asked whether we could ban the export of live animals – something the British Government has long desired but has been prevented from doing by EU regulations?

• Given the EU has a poor record on trade deals, in large part because of its protectionist non-tariff barriers, would the ‘Common Rule Book’ not make it more difficult to strike deals with non-EU countries by obliging imports from these countries to keep to EU regulations?

• Given John’s wish to rid ourselves of an uncontrolled EU immigration policy which also discriminates against the rest of the world, what is the difference between the ‘Mobility Framework’ and ‘Freedom of Movement’, and therefore what is stopping the former becoming the latter in all but name in the negotiations?

John said,

“One could take the view that this Agreement, assuming no further concessions, is part of a process which ultimately delivers fully on the referendum result. In the interim, these three basic questions go to the heart of our forthcoming withdrawal agreement with the EU, and need to be answered for me to decide what Chequers means in practice. Tomorrow’s White Paper will provide a further piece of the jigsaw.”