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David Jones MP speaks frankly to us about Brexit – its successes and its challenges
Brexit Facts4EU.Org and CIBUK.Org are proud to present an exclusive interview with former Brexit Minister the Rt Hon David Jones, MP for Clwyd West. In the video (14 minutes) and text extracts below, Mr Jones leads us through many of the key issues facing our country in regard to independence, sovereignty, democracy, and freedom.
Filmed in his Westminster office, what David Jones says makes for compelling viewing and we thoroughly recommend taking 14 minutes out of your day to watch it.
Watch the interview and/or read some extracts below
Just some of what David Jones had to say – for more please watch the video
(And please don’t forget to ‘Like’ and ‘Subscribe’!)
On Sovereignty and Trade
“We are free of the European Court of Justice. We’re in a position to strike our own free trade agreements and we’re doing that very successfully with Australia and New Zealand and hopefully with India before long.”
“One of the good things that we're doing, of course, is acceding to the CPTPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which means that we've now got a foot in the door of some of the most dynamic economies in the world.”
On Northern Ireland
“There are one or two bits that haven't been fulfilled, and they've got to be fulfilled. And that is most particularly, of course, the issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol.”
“The Windsor Framework is essentially a wrapper for the Northern Ireland Protocol – we're going to be held back, because we're going to be subject, effectively, to EU regulations in goods. So that's something that has got to be gripped.”
On the threats to Brexit
“There's no doubt that Keir Starmer is a dyed-in-the-wool Remainer. He wanted to have a second referendum, you'll recall. So he would like to get us again back within the orbit of Brussels.”
“I think that when people come to the next general election, they've got to start thinking about what a vote for the Labour Party really means. It means rolling back the clock and going back to something very, very close to EU membership.”
On the implications of re-joining the EU
“If we were to make an application to re-join the European Union we'd have to sign up to the single currency, which is an inherently weak and unstable currency, because it's not backed by sovereign wealth.”
On the Civil Service
“You have to remember that there are no officials working for the government now who can remember a time when we were not part of the European Union, and there's a kind of ‘phantom limb’ syndrome going on.”
“There's no doubt that the centre of gravity of world trade and world commerce and world industry is moving towards the Far East. And the European Union is going to become a much less significant world economic power. Particularly because, of course, it's a socialist model. And that will hold it back in competition with other economies around the world.”
On Defence
“NATO is hugely important to this country and, in fact, to every European state, including European states outside the European Union. And the problem that we've got is that certain EU member states are setting up PESCO as a rival to NATO.”
On PESCO
“The United Kingdom has recently indicated that it wants to join one element of PESCO. There are over 60 elements of PESCO.
“But you always get the feeling that this is the thin end of the wedge, and that the European Union will then be suggesting that we join another element and another element.”
“And do bear in mind, it's a one-way process. PESCO stands for Permanent Structured Cooperation. In other words, once we're part of that cooperation, we're there for good.”
Photo right: Our highly talented interviewer, former MEP, former GB News presenter, now at Talk TV, Alex Phillips.
“It's all about running our own affairs. And we don't want to have our affairs run anymore by someone from another country. We want to run our own affairs, thank you very much. So, it was a very simple choice.
“And then, of course, after the vote we had all these debates about what sort of Brexit did we want. Well, it was quite straightforward. We wanted a Brexit which took us out of the European Union. And anything that didn't do that didn't actually cut the mustard.”
Observations
In this fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, the former Brexit Minister urges the UK to seize the opportunities now open to it and be bold, especially in relation to trade and Northern Ireland.
We would also do well to heed his warnings when it comes to our future relationship with the EU, the implications of re-entering the EU’s orbit under a future Labour government, as well as the manifest lunacy of signing up to the European single currency.
He also highlights the real danger of compromising national security under the NATO umbrella by signing up to even one element of PESCO - an untested and permanent European defence initiative to rival and even challenge the authority of NATO itself.
Perhaps most importantly, David Jones demolishes the nonsense from Remainers about "what sort of Brexit" we voted for.
About the Rt Hon David Jones MP
We have never met an MP as genuine and charming as David Jones. Added to this, his never-ending courtesy, calmness, and his clarity of thought have made him someone whom we have sought out regularly over the years, for his advice and wisdom.
We deeply regret his decision to stand down as MP for Clwyd West at the next election. He will be a great loss to the people he has served so faithfully as MP since 2005 and certainly the Brexit Facts4EU.Org and CIBUK.Org teams will be very sorry to see him depart the national stage.
His first public office was as Member of the Welsh Assembly in 2002. In 2005 he won the parliamentary seat of Clwyd West and turned it from being a safe Labour seat into a comfortable Conservative one. He became Secretary of State for Wales in 2012 and was then removed by David Cameron in 2014.
Brexit credentials
At the beginning of Theresa May’s disastrous tenure as PM, in July 2016 David Jones was appointed as a Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU). Mrs May subsequently dismissed him from this role in the summer of 2017 – presumably because he actually believes in Brexit.
For the EU Referendum David was on the Compliance Committee of Vote Leave. Subsequently as a member of the European Research Group of MPs, he was elected as their Deputy Chairman in March 2020.
In short, David Jones has had an illustrious career in politics following a successful career heading up his own law firm. He will be sorely missed by us and – we are sure – by a great many people.
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