Philip Davies: Point of no return for UK after Brexit

The Government wanted Britain to remain in the EU, the establishment wanted Britain to remain in the EU and most MPs wanted Britain to remain in the EU. Yet the majority of Conservative members (and voters) wanted Britain to leave the EU, and they helped to win one of the biggest victories of all time.

Theresa May was not on the same side as the vast majority of Conservative Party members in the debate. I did not vote for her to become the next Prime Minister and I am sorry that members of the party have been denied their chance to choose their next leader.

However, Theresa May is not only the new leader of the Conservative Party but also our new Prime Minister and she has said that Brexit means Brexit.

Given her stance during the referendum she will be especially keen to show Party members and the public that she can deliver what they have overwhelmingly voted for.

I am delighted that she has appointed no-nonsense Yorkshire MP David Davis to lead the Brexit negotiations and Liam Fox to develop new trade deals around the world.

Leaving the EU means us getting back control of our country – of our finances, our borders and our laws.

Brexit will only be a Brexit that is acceptable to the country if this is achieved and, for the avoidance of doubt, this means there can be no free movement of people as part of a deal with the EU. Theresa May has told me that this is her position and I am sure she will stick to it.

It will not be in any way acceptable to the country having voted to leave the EU only to rejoin it by stealth or to effectively agree to keep all the things that were wrong with it in return for trade just without actually officially being a member of the EU.

We also need her leadership to ensure we get out of the EU as soon as possible. The Government said in one of the series of EU documents they published before the referendum: “The Prime Minister made clear to the House of Commons that ‘if the British people vote to leave, there is only one way to bring that about, namely to trigger Article 50 of the Treaties and begin the process of exit, and the British people would rightly expect that to start straight away.’”

The process should start now and the whole of Government should be working now towards life post-Brexit. These plans can be made right now regardless of the negotiations – and the negotiations do not need to drag on.

Either the EU is prepared to do trade deals with us without any free movement of people or they are not. If they are we just need to get on with it. If not we can explore our other options.

We can also be making Britain a very attractive country to do business with – this is a golden opportunity to deregulate without the tentacles of the EU getting in the way. We can develop lower tax options and give people back more control of their lives.

A pro-Britain and pro-business campaign needs to start in earnest and we need to be starting to pave the way for trade deals with the rest of the world – the world really is our oyster.

After Theresa May has achieved a successful Brexit and we have got a grip of European foreign criminals as part of the Brexit strategy, there are other things I would like to see her tackle. Scrapping the Human Rights Act would be a very welcome development in the right direction and popular with Conservative members and voters alike.

The Prime Minister should also resist the temptation to engineer a snap General Election.

The Labour Party are in chaos and, by the admission of many of their Mps, would be wiped out in a sudden election and so Theresa May could easily be tempted.

However, we have just had a national election where over 33 million people voted and given the Government a clear instruction and the Government should now focus on that and, as such, leaving the EU is obviously the number one item on the political agenda.

I believe getting out of the EU and ensuring it is a huge success needs to be at the top of all political in-trays – and that is where the issue should stay until this has been achieved.

Philip Davies is Conservative MP for Shipley