We finally got Brexit done – now we’ll make it work for the Red Wall towns
WHAT do the Remoaners who clog up the airwaves with their anti-British boorishness – the Alastair Campbells, Emily Maitlises, Jon Sopels and pretty much every Liberal Democrat known to man – have in common?
A disdain for democracy? Probably.
A propensity to call straight-talking Brexiteers like me stupid, fascist or racist? Almost certainly.
A contempt for those who dare hold different views? Definitely.
But there’s something more fundamental at play. These are people who just don’t understand why communities like mine in Ashfield, Notts, voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU.
For them, “heading north” means going for a leisurely stroll around Hampstead Heath in North London or heading to Highgate Cemetery to pay homage to Karl Marx.
And when they first heard about the Red Wall they thought it was one of Farrow & Ball’s new paint colours.
They just don’t understand what life is like for so many people. From the comfort of their Islington townhouses they don’t struggle to find good work.
They haven’t seen the industries their communities were built on disappear.
Freedom to choose
They don’t struggle to put food on the table.
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They haven’t seen the effects of mass uncontrolled migration on public services.
They can’t see that being part of the EU didn’t help any of this, it made it worse.
They didn’t get it during the referendum and they don’t get it now.
We won the argument in 2016, and we left the EU — that’s democracy.
I can’t stand here and claim everyone voted leave for the same reasons.
But for me, and folk in Ashfield, one thing stood out above all else: The freedom to choose.
The problems we face can’t be tackled by bureaucrats in Brussels, they need to be tackled on the ground.
Politicians might have different ideas about the best way to go about it, but now we have the freedom to have this debate at home, in our parliament, where the views of local people matter.
Because we’re a representative democracy and that’s how our system is supposed to function.
We managed just fine for decades when our MPs, acting on behalf of our people, made our laws — not European commissioners from Belgium or Luxembourg.
That’s why people in towns like mine chose to vote Conservative for the first time in 2019.
They trusted us to get Brexit done and use the freedoms we took back from Brussels to deliver the people’s priorities.
They didn’t want to hand power back to Labour, a party that would rather let Brussels decide what’s best for Britain.
On Wednesday night, the vote for the Prime Minister’s Windsor Agreement to improve the Northern Ireland Protocol got Brexit done once and for all.
Now we need to get on with the process of making Brexit work, especially for towns like mine along the Red Wall.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s more work to do, but I think we’re doing a pretty good job of it so far.
We’re introducing new laws to stop the boats and we’ve already put an end to unlimited migration from the EU, where even hardened criminals could waltz straight into our country.
And Red Wall voters are happy for workers to come over in areas where we need them, like construction and care, but don’t want them to stay indefinitely and have a right to benefits paid for by taxpayers’ cash.
This is about choice, it’s about common sense.
They also appreciate that we have the final say over where our money is spent.
The EU used to throw our money down the toilet by flying Belgians to Burkina Faso to teach them how to dance.
But today, our new Levelling Up Fund is helping to build a new theatre in Derby, state-of-the-art offices in Mansfield and a food market for local producers in Melton Mowbray — assets our communities can enjoy and be proud of.
Meanwhile, in Ashfield we’ve got two new schools and £70million of Levelling Up cash to regenerate an area neglected by Labour MPs and councils for decades.
The liberal Left might struggle to define levelling up, but my constituents don’t.
They’ve seen their town decline after years of Labour mismanagement and they’re chuffed we’re finally stopping the rot.
They know it’s because of Brexit that we’re free to use the power of government to get growth going in areas that need it most.
I can’t deny that I’ve heard some complaints about businesses trading with the EU.
But now the Northern Ireland Protocol has been sorted, things are moving in the right direction again.
But if slippery Starmer had his way we’d be stuck in the Single Market and Customs Union, taking rules from Brussels without having a single voice in making them.
It’d be Brexit in name only. All of the costs, but none of the benefits.
We mustn’t let the British people forget that he tried to thwart Brexit at every turn and fought tooth and nail for a second referendum.
Not surprising for a lefty lawyer from North London.
Propaganda machines
So we can’t let him win this time around.
For all his mealy-mouthed platitudes about making Brexit work, when push comes to shove who’s to say he won’t go back on his word and take us back into the Single Market, and eventually the EU itself.
After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s changed his mind.
We need to get out on the street and let anyone who’ll listen know about how we’re making Brexit work for hard-working families and firms.
God knows they won’t hear about it on the news, on the radio or on those left-wing podcast propaganda machines.
Because at the next election, people will have a choice: Stick with a Conservative government that’s delivering Brexit and the people’s priorities, or hand power to a Labour Party that’ll move us closer to the EU by stealth and wipe out the gains we’ve worked day and night to make.
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Labour might have already crowned Sir Keir PM. But there’s plenty of time left to play and most voters haven’t made up their minds.
So let’s get out there and sell Brexit, smash Starmer and secure another five years of sound Conservative government.