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| University of Bradford Author Chemical Engineer Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons |
Yesterday a "Creative Economic Conference" took place at the University of Bradford as part of the Bradford Literature Festival. One of the events was an interview of the Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP by the economist, Mr Andy Haldane. I attended the interview because Ms Reeves is likely to be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer should the Labour Party win the next general election. Sadly, it took place at the same time as two other events I would gladly have attended, a Roundtable Discussion on Artificial Intelligence and a Trade Relations Roundtable on Business with India.
In her interview, Ms Reeves described the UK's Trade and Cooperation Agreement as a "botched deal" so I asked her how the Labour Party proposed to improve the deal were it to win the next general election in the short Q&A that followed. To her credit, the Shadow Chancellor gave me a very straight answer. She did not promise negotiations to rejoin either the European Union or even the Single Market or Customs Arrangement but she did seek improvements to the Agreement in such areas as veterinary controls, the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and participating in Horizon Europe again.
That was not enough to persuade me to support the Labour Party but it is probably as much as any of the unionist parties in the UK can offer. Scottish, Northern Irish and probably Welsh nationalists can go further because the Conservative Party is weak in those nations and the prospect of rejoining the EU is part of the case for secession or annexation by the Republic of Ireland. Until there is a consensus for rejoining the EU in England the remaining member EU member states will not take an application from the UK to rejoin the EU seriously. Such a consensus would require a change of attitude towards the EU on the part of the Conservative Party. Similar changes of attitude on similarly important issues have occurred in the past but a volte-face on EU membership on less favourable terms than before is not on the cards yet.
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