Closer ties with Europe would help solve problems the Chancellor says Britain faces - Yorkshire Post Letters
From: Jas Olak, vice chair, Leeds for Europe.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves says the previous government made huge unbudgeted-for spending commitments (Reeves to list costs of £20bn gap in funding, TYP front page, July 29) / (Reeves expected to reveal £20 billion hole in public finances, YEP - page 5, July 29).
Tackling the deficit will reportedly mean delays to public investments…challenging the Government’s supposed number one priority of economic growth.
Difficult for what’s left of the Tory party in Parliament to be too critical, though: We were told before the General Election that both main parties were being unrealistic regarding what a new government would face.
Labour’s keen to present Leeds West and Pudsey MP Ms Reeves as an “iron chancellor” who’ll maintain financial discipline.
One plank of that was giving the Office for Budget Responsibility new powers - a ‘fiscal lock’ - to review Labour’s tax and spending plans.
That’s the same OBR that forecast a four per cent hit to the economy as a result of us leaving the European Union - meaning less money for public services and investment.
Undoing Brexit would mean recovering at least some of that growth; more of it if we went further and faster than Sir Keir Starmer’s Government is currently committed to.
Presumably, the OBR will review its estimate of the economic hit once measures are in place to mitigate Brexit’s damage.
Ditching or delaying some of the previous government’s spending commitments will probably be unpopular for Labour.
But ripping up Labour’s own election ‘red lines’ around Brexit and Europe would be popular with the majority of voters, UK firms trading with Europe or wanting to, and potential overseas investors.
If things really are as bad as Ms Reeves maintains, she should be pushing Cabinet colleagues harder to tackle Brexit's contribution to poor economic growth and the parlous state of public finances.
What real objections are there to the Single Market and Customs Union at least?