Reynolds Opens Door to ECJ Oversight of UK
Jonathan Reynolds and Kemi Badenoch made each party’s case for trade in today’s Bloomberg business debate. Reynolds was asked, amid heavy pressure on Labour to reverse constituent elements of Brexit: “The EU says it is open to negotiating, for example a veterinary deal which is something you’ve been pushing for, to ease border friction on fresh food – but that it must have a role for the European Court of Justice: will you accept that as a condition?” The EU is crystal clear that forcing the UK to be a rule-taker under the ECJ’s jurisdiction would be a pre-requisite for the deals that Labour wants…
Reynolds left the door wide open:
“Look it’s a negotiation. New Zealand has an agreement of this kind. We’re not going to give away our negotiating hand entirely but we believe, look the argument on on food and agriculture products is this: do you want lower standards than the European Union? If you don’t want lower standards, surely we remove pragmatically some of those checks and balances to make sure we can have as close a relationship as is possible… we should always be seeking to make it the smoothest easiest relationship.“
These are the same arguments from the Brexit referendum. As soon as the election is over the vast majority of pressure on and inside Labour will be for one direction of travel…