British firms are being hindered by Brexit red tape - Yorkshire Post Letters

On April 24 MPs held a debate about our trading relationship with the European Union. I mentioned it was coming up in a recent letter (Stop dragging feet on the debate on Europe, TYP, April 22).

It was a well-attended debate: So much so MPs were given only two or three minutes in which to speak, a Government minister’s response was cut short and the MP who’d instigated the debate denied the usual courtesy of a summing up at the end.

Little time then for MPs with much that needed to be said. Many highlighted how Brexit has adversely affected businesses in their constituencies.

It’s worth noting, too, the kind of MPs who didn’t show up. None from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party successor Reform. The token Tory presumably had to be there because the party behind Boris Johnson’s disastrous and reviled Brexit deal is now the country’s Official Opposition.

Firms in Conservative and Reform constituencies won’t be immune to harm caused to trade by our EU departure. Are their MPs wilfully blind to this, or just too embarrassed to stand up in Parliament and attempt to defend their failed project and its damage?

One positive way forward mentioned several times was negotiating a customs union agreement with the EU. It wouldn’t be as far-reaching and beneficial as rejoining the EU or restoring access to the European Single Market.

But it would go some way to addressing the many billions of pounds worth of extra red tape and border delays British firms face today - on top of all the business they’ve lost and are still losing because of Brexit. It merits a debate in its own right.

That’ll probably happen, too, if a petition on Parliament’s website secures 100,000 signatures.