Dear Bruges Group, "In 2016, when 17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union, they voted for a different sort of country. A country with a sovereign parliament, in control over its future. While the Conservative Party delivered Brexit, we did not respect the spirit of the referendum. We did not take full advantage of the regulatory...
I'm just going to say a very few brief words to mark this occasion and to mark some of the very significant problems that the conservative party faces going forward. And frankly, it now has to decide whether it really wants to be the Conservative Party. Firstly, a little good news there's not much of it about I'm afraid but over the last few months...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
"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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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;...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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. "…th...
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 pa...
- 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...
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 ...
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...
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...
