Yesterday in the House of Commons, Fay Jones MP delivered an impassioned speech defending the Union of the United Kingdom during the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill: Consideration in Committee debate.
The UK’s internal market has functioned seamlessly for centuries, but once the Transition Period ends, rules that have regulated how each home nation trades with one another over the past 45 years will fall away.
Through the UK Internal Market Bill, the UK Government will ensure businesses can continue to trade unhindered across all parts of the UK, avoiding unnecessary burdens and costs being placed on businesses or consumers and providing certainty that people can work and trade freely anywhere in the UK.
The Bill seeks to:
- Protect the UK’s centuries-old internal market, by ensuring goods and services in one part of the UK are recognised in the others and ensuring a fair playing field for all companies.
- Ensure high standards are protected across the whole UK. `
- Guarantee more powers for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England after the end of the EU transition period.
- Allow the UK Government to invest in communities across each of the home nations, bolstering our economic recovery from coronavirus.
The UK Internal Market Bill is currently in the Committee Stage, whereby the Bill is considered line by line. As the Bill is being considered by a Committee of the whole House, the debate in the Commons Chamber focused specifically on Clause 46 which would give the UK Government spending power in devolved areas.
During her speech, Fay Jones MP busted the myth that this Bill represents a power grab from devolved administrations. As the transition period comes to an end, powers which were previously ceded to the European Union will be returning to the UK. While some of these powers will remain with the UK Parliament, Miss Jones said “it is about doing more at a reserved level, not less at a devolved level… the Welsh Parliament will be handed responsibility for 70 new policy areas while none of the existing areas of legislative competence is being removed, so to those who argue this is a power grab, I simply say, you cannot lose something you never had.”
Miss Jones praised the UK Internal Market Bill as an opportunity that would strengthen even further the most successful political and economic union in history. In particular, Miss Jones welcomed the fact that it will give the UK Government the power to invest in Wales’s economic development. Miss Jones went on to list infrastructure projects which this power could be used to fund, including building a general hospital in Powys or reopening the railway between Hereford and Brecon. She said “this Bill could not be better timed as people recover from COVID-19. Investing in jobs and livelihoods and generating prosperity in all four corners of the United Kingdom is exactly what this Government should be doing.”
Commenting on her speech, Miss Jones said:
“The investment this Bill enables will have a profoundly positive impact in mid-Wales, which has been ignored by Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition in Cardiff Bay.”
“Sadly, there is no doubt that the opposition parties will use the Bill as an opportunity to reignite their campaign of talking down our potential as a sovereign, independent nation. Rather than strengthening our Union and empowering our Parliaments in all four nations, they would prefer to be subservient to Brussels for decades to come.”
“I say to them that now is not the time to remain in the past. Rather, it is time to look forward to a new chapter in the shared history of the United Kingdom, laying the foundations for making this the most prosperous chapter yet. This Bill will do exactly that.”
“The UK Internal Market Bill delivers on exactly what we said we would do at the General Election. It will enable us to level up in all four corners of the United Kingdom.”
Fay Jones MP’s full speech can be accessed here.
Miss Jones statement on the UK Internal Market Bill, whereby she comments Clauses 40-45 which would allow the Government to ‘override’ some elements of the Northern Ireland Protocol contained within the Withdrawal Agreement Bill can be accessed here.