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The Bruges Group spearheaded the intellectual battle to win a vote to leave the European Union and, above all, against the emergence of a centralised EU state.
The Bruges Group spearheaded the intellectual battle to win a vote to leave the European Union and, above all, against the emergence of a centralised EU state.
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Barry Legg

Barry Legg was Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee. He was the Conservative Party’s Chief Executive and a former MP, representing Milton Keynes South West. Whilst in Parliament Barry was a Maastricht rebel. He is also a businessman and Chairman of the Bruges Group.

Barry Legg

'Heir to Margaret Thatcher'? GB News Barry Legg, Chairman of The Bruges Group Interview on GB News

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Chairman of The Bruges Group Barry Legg spoke to GB News Political Editor Darren McCaffrey on Liz Truss' candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party. GB News The Briefing with Darren McCaffrey 'It took Margaret Thatcher a while to get up to full speed, Liz is just getting out of the blocks.'Chairman of the Bruges Group Barry Legg discuss...
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Barry Legg

The Bruges Group calls for a radical change in Conservative Party policy

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Thirty years ago, twenty-three Conservative Members of Parliament voted against the Maastricht Treaty. Our main concern was that it opened the door to the abolition of the Pound and its replacement with what became the euro. Some twenty-seven years later in two-thousand and nineteen, twenty-seven Conservative Members of Parliament voted against The...
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Barry Legg

Conservatives in the last chance saloon

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This week has been another shocking reminder how far adrift today's Conservative Party are from the principles enunciated and implemented by its greatest peacetime leader Margaret Thatcher. To me personally, this has been dramatically emphasised by the loss of Westminster City Council to the Labour Party. Some thirty years ago as the Finance Chairm...
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Barry Legg

UK Government in chaos as it caves to EU again

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Backs down on NI Protocol, then withdraws proposed rule changes, but wins in Appeals Court.  The Government is busy on Ukraine but what about the integrity of the UK? Despite past assurances of being willing to suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol it continues in place after the British Government revealed its true self yesterday. Firstly it ...
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Barry Legg

Sir Richard Shepherd – the finest of Parliamentarians

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Sir Richard Shepherd was one of the most principled and pleasant people that I knew in the House of Commons. Brian Sedgemore, left-wing Labour MP, once said to me "I much prefer the company of Tory MPs. Labour MPs are nasty people, they seem like nasty people, while Tory MPs are also nasty people but seem like nice people." But Sir Richard Shepherd...
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Barry Legg

Remembering Richard Shepherd

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Listen to the podcast below Sir Richard Shepherd, for 35 years an independently minded Conservative MP, died last month. How should he be remembered? As a Eurosceptic and a natural rebel, certainly, and also as the founder of Partridges - one of London's most loved food shops. But was he, at heart, a libertarian or a traditional Tory or an old scho...
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Barry Legg

Barry Legg on Boris

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"Never glad confident morning again" This was the phrase used by Nigel Birch in the Profumo debate of June 1963 to encapsulate the situation in which Prime Minister Harold Macmillan found himself. Four months later, Macmillan decided to resign. I have always been struck by the similarities between Macmillan and Johnson. They both went to Eton and B...
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Barry Legg

The Chairman’s New Year's Message for 2022

Its high taxes and high inflation which threaten Boris' premiership, not wine and cheese parties and expensive wallpaper.  Ladies, and Gentleman, Bruges Group Members, Welcome to 2022. Well, we are still waiting to get Brexit done. We have paid our £40 billion voluntary exit fee some years ago, but the European Court of Justice still holds swa...
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Barry Legg

Barry Legg's Letter to The Telegraph on Tax Increases

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SIR – Extra taxation on savers to fund the NHS and care-home fees is bizarre. Some paying the extra tax may have been motivated to save in order not to depend on the state in their old age. Now achieving that objective will be undermined. Others will be care-home residents, now having to make a higher tax contribution to fellow residents' costs.&nb...
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Barry Legg

'We Need Courage, Not Lockdown!' John Longworth

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John Longworth was the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce; he was also an MEP and co-Chairman of Leave Means Leave. A great problem with many politicians and most civil servants is that they don't understand business. The reverse is probably also true. The enterprise economy is alien to the political class and they tend ...
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Barry Legg

Free of the EU’s Stifling Legal System, British Financial Services will go from Strength to Strength

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By Barney Reynolds  Like it, or loathe it, Brexit is an opportunity for Britain to reassert herself as a sovereign nation. For those of us who are optimistic about our post-EU future, we have only to point to the recent fiasco around the EU vaccination roll out as one example of how "taking back control" has already been beneficial. But t...
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Barry Legg

Barney Reynolds: Treasury Select Committee on the UK's Economic and Trading Relationship with the EU

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On Monday 11th January The Treasury Select Committee discussed the UK's future economic and trading relationship with the European Union; Bruges Group speaker and friend, Barney Reynolds was invited to give evidence as a witness. Present at the meeting were Select Committee Chairman, Mel Stride MP (Conservative), Rushanara Ali MP (Labour), Steve Ba...
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Barry Legg

All at Sea

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By David Scullion It's been a fortnight since the Northern Ireland Protocol was introduced and yesterday in parliament the DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson secured an Urgent Question on the problems it has caused in that short time. Responding, Michael Gove (who privately hinted to Brexiteer MPs it would never be introduced) said that there had been "c...
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Barry Legg

Sturgeon's Desperate Bid to Beg von der Leyen for EU Membership

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By Richard Percival  Nicola Sturgeon has been pestering President of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen and other Brussels officials with letters and emails in a desperate attempt to get Scotland to rejoin the EU, leaked correspondence seen by Express.co.uk shows.  About 25 letters and emails released under Freedom of Infor...
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Barry Legg

Statement on Britain's EU Exit

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Brexit is done and future is ours to shape  The government is to be commended both for its steadfast refusal to extend the transition period and for achieving exactly that which it set out to; a free trade deal with the EU in less than a year. As leading opposition figures have correctly pointed out, it is a thin deal – but this should be cele...
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Barry Legg

Emmanuel Macron was the Brexit Bad Guy Right up Until the Last minute

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By Trevor Kavanagh A last minute row over fish last night threatened to scupper Boris Johnson's hopes of a triumphant New Year Brexit deal. Egged on by arrogant French President Emmanuel Macron, Brussels insisted on the bulk of our fish or cash payments in compensation. The PM cannot sign a deal which fails to return UK sovereignty over our coastal...
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Barry Legg

Boris Must Keep The EU At Arm’s Length – Or He’ll Regret It

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By Dr Lee Rotherham  Epicharmus, a Greek comic writer of the fifth century BC, had this maxim: "Stay sober and remember to be sceptical." It is as good a piece of advice as we are likely to deploy at present. We are at a time of flux and flex in the Brexit talks. Helpfully, Michel Barnier has reportedly now figured out how to get his Zoom work...
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Barry Legg

Michael Gove on the Northern Irish Protocol - House of Commons

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Two days ago, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove MP made an extraordinary statement in the House of Commons. In his opening remarks he stated: "Throughout 2020, we have worked intensively to ensure that the withdrawal agreement, in particular the Northern Ireland protocol, will be full...
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Barry Legg

Are Brexiteer MPs Happy?

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By David Scullion There was expectation of a Brexit trade deal announcement on Sunday night, but then we were told the differences between the two sides were too great to bridge. Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, the EU commission President, spoke on the phone and, we're told, asked both of their negotiating teams to work out what the big dif...
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Barry Legg

Sammy Wilson MP: UK’s Trade Deal With The EU Must Live Up To Brexit Promises

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By The Rt. Hon. Sammy Wilson MP - DUP Member of Parliament for East Antrim  As the U.K. edges toward a final deal on its future relationship with the European Union, it is important that we ensure the agreement delivers on what was promised. Already it is clear that last year's Withdrawal Agreement was fatally flawed. It leaves Bruss...
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Barry Legg

The EU Deal Unmasked

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Link to the full paper by the Centre for Brexit Studies By The Rt. Hon. Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP (Conservative Party MP), Martin Howe QC (Intellectual Property and EU Law; Chairman of Lawyers for Britain), Professor David Collins (International Economic Law, University of London), Edgar Miller (Managing Director of Palladian Limited;...
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Barry Legg

Why Boris Should Reject This Brexit Deal

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Link to initial article By Martin Howe QC, Chairman of Lawyers for Britain Boris Johnson says the EU has refused to negotiate seriously with the UK for the last few months, and time has now run out for reaching a trade agreement before 31 December when the current transition period ends. The PM has been pressing the EU for a free-trade agreement co...
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Barry Legg

We Face a Critical Choice: Global Britain, or the Mire of Protectionism

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By Shanker Singham  As the Agriculture Bill makes its way through Parliament, the UK faces a critical choice in its international trade policy. It is widely understood in trade circles that agriculture is the gate through which all trade policy flows. Long the bugbear of world trade, agricultural sectors all over the world have rigidly op...
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Barry Legg

Busting the Food Price Myth in a No Deal Brexit

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By Catherine McBride  On Friday the BBC headline news included an item entitled: Shoppers could pay more after no-deal Brexit. The story was planted by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) who said that tariffs would add £3.1bn a year to the cost of importing food and drink unless the UK and the EU can strike a free trade agreement. This was a ...
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Barry Legg

Would a ‘No Deal’ Brexit Really Cost Three Times More Than COVID?

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Link to initial article By Julian Jessop Brexit talks resumed this week with growing hopes that a trade deal can be done in time for the October EU summit. This follows speculation that the UK has softened its position after Boris Johnson was 'shocked by a London School of Economics report suggesting that no deal would cost Britain up to three time...
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Barry Legg

Giving up Control

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First published in The Critic by David Scullion https://thecritic.co.uk/no-escape-for-britain-brexit/ After concluding the latest round of Brexit talks, the UK's chief negotiator David Frost said, 'considerable gaps remain in the most difficult areas' and that on the sticking point of fisheries the EU has failed to understand that the UK position a...
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Barry Legg

Obituary: The well-rounded life of Stuart Wheeler

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 A gentleman and a player The life of Stuart Wheeler – as if plotted by Charles Dickens – turned upon the vagaries of chance, of odds overcome, some perplexing contradictions and the narrow margin separating the enjoyment of great wealth with ending-up stony broke. History distinguishes him as the Conservative party's single greatest benefacto...
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Barry Legg

Brexit in a post-Coronavirus World

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The challenges and the opportunities  With the speakers; - Rt. Hon. Sir John Redwood MP- ​Tim Congdon CBE- ​Professor Patrick Minford CBE- ​Dr. Gerard Lyons Professor Tim Congdon CBE:Are Eurozone Trends in Public Debt and Financial Imbalance Unsustainable?  Quotations from the April 2020 ECB Economic Bulletin 1. "...
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Barry Legg

The UK-EU Trade Talks – Why The Pandemic Has Changed Everything

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By Victor Hill, first published on Master Investor   The UK-EU Trade Talks – Why the pandemic has changed everything - Master Investor ​By Victor Hill https://masterinvestor.co.uk/economics/the-uk-eu-trade-talks-why-the-pandemic-has-changed-everything/ The Road to No Deal  While Europe and the world have been monopolised by the Covid-19 p...
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Barry Legg

A Statement From The Bruges Group Regarding the Prime Minister

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 - A Statement from the Bruges Group -The news that Boris Johnson was admitted to ICU on Monday evening came as aprofound shock and the Bruges Group joins the entire nation in sending amessage of support to Boris, Carrie and their family. Our thoughts, prayersand best wishes are with them all at this challenging time.The Prime Minister's dedic...
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Barry Legg

Statement from Barry Legg, Chairman of The Bruges Group on the Withdrawal Agreement

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The Bruges Group is opposed to the acceptance by Parliament of the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration which has been released today. The Bruges Group has always put the highest priority in maintaining the integrity of the United Kingdom. This agreement provides for a different status for Northern Ireland and therefore has the potential ...
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Recent Comments
Guest — Will Podmore
Quite right, thank you.
Friday, 18 October 2019 13:35
Guest — Adam Hiley
if Boris Johnson tries to sneak in Theresa May's nonsensical Withdrawal Deal He will deserve to be thrashed at the inevitable Gene... Read More
Friday, 18 October 2019 20:17
Guest — Heather
So why is Bill Cash saying they will vote for it, very confused?
Saturday, 19 October 2019 19:57
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Barry Legg

Sovereignty is the issue

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The issue at the heart of our contentious relationship with the European Union – and before that the Common Market – was sovereignty, rather than trade. Likewise, the debate over the Withdrawal Agreement: it has little to do with our trading relationship and everything to do with ensuring that sovereignty remains firmly with the EU, although techni...
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John Poynton
Even so it is affecting the decision so we must address it. The real point is that there is in fact no conflict between the two. ... Read More
Thursday, 20 June 2019 16:00
Guest — Adam Hiley
We should of never joined the Nazi Founded German Protection racket sorry I meant the EU also Britain should keep Her distance fr... Read More
Friday, 18 October 2019 20:21
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Barry Legg

Statement by Barry Legg - Chairman of the Bruges Group

 Contact your Member of Parliament Theresa May has decided to pursue a policy of Brexit in name only (BRINO). This arrangement will be worse than our current membership of the European Union as we will then be a vassal state. If this policy is implemented the electoral consequences for the Conservative Party will be dire. I urge all members of...
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Guest — clive Sinclair
I have written to my MP as I frequently do and you are absolutely right indeed, please do all in your power to help any uprising i... Read More
Tuesday, 10 July 2018 16:05
Guest — #StopBrexit
Hard brexit is not the will of the people either. How many voted for hard brexit? How many voted for BRINO? Much less than those w... Read More
Tuesday, 10 July 2018 17:05
Guest — thomas hall
I was surprised that our PM Theresa May decided to go to Angela Merkel before she sat down with her cabinet. I personally feel th... Read More
Tuesday, 10 July 2018 17:27
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