Cameron says ‘heat and and anger’ has come out of UK-EU relationship
Foreign secretary grilled on post-Brexit relations with the bloc by peers
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Your support makes all the difference.David Cameron said the “heat and anger” has come out of the UK’s relationship with the European Union and that they can be “friends, neighbours and partners”.
The Foreign Secretary said he thought the “ad hoc” nature of the co-ordination between Britain and the bloc was working well, including in the response to the Ukraine war.
He also warned that if the EU and US fail to agree support packages for Kyiv, it would be a “Christmas present” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his first lengthy parliamentary grilling since his comeback to frontline politics, the former prime minister faced questions on post-Brexit relations with Europe, Ukraine, Israel and Rwanda.
Lord Cameron, who resigned as prime minister after losing the 2016 Brexit referendum, told the Lords European Affairs Committee: “It’s been interesting coming back to see how it’s working and how problems are being fixed and opportunities are being taken.
“I think a lot of the heat and and anger has come out of the relationship. It’s now much more functional and I think it’s functioning well.”
The appointment of the former leader of the Remain campaign to Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet angered some Tory Brexit hardliners.
Lord Cameron told peers on Thursday: “The way I see it is, you know, we’ve decided not to be a member, but we can be friends, neighbours and partners, and we make that partnership work as well as we can. And I think its delivering in all sorts of ways.”
Asked whether a more structured framework for relations with the EU would be beneficial, he said the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen “ad hoc arrangements put in place” and “that flexibility really helps”.
The UK should “make the most” of its post-Brexit trading agreement with the EU, and not be “trying to reopen it and change the nature of it”.
“We’re not suddenly going to reopen free movement or go back into the customs union or any of those things,” he said.
The best Christmas present we could give to the Ukrainians is to pass both those packages and if we don’t, we’re giving a Christmas present to Vladimir Putin and we shouldn’t be doing that
He said Britain should be “canny and tough” in a review of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, but declined to lay out a list of “things we’d like to fix”.
He said the political dispute preventing the US Congress from passing a package of wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel was “frustrating” and expressed hope
“The best Christmas present we could give to the Ukrainians is to pass both those packages and if we don’t, we’re giving a Christmas present to Vladimir Putin and we shouldn’t be doing that.”
He also said Britain’s foreign policy tilt towards the Indo-Pacific “isn’t just a phrase.
“It’s a proper thought-through policy with a number of… real things that are happening,” Lord Cameron told peers, pointing to the UK’s accession to the CPTPP trade bloc, Hiroshima accords with Japan, and Aukus submarine agreement with the US and Australia as examples.
It comes as UK business raised fears about the damaging cost of new labelling requirements set to come in as a result of Rishi Sunak’s post-Brexit Windsor Framework deal.
All meat and some dairy products moving from Great Britain to be sold in Northern Ireland have to carry “not for EU” labels. And from October 2024, all those goods sold right across the UK will also have to include the labels.
Sean Ramsden – director of the Food and Drink Exporters Association and chief executive of the Ramsden International export firm – told Politico the new system as “absolutely cataclysmic for food exporters.”
He said small firms would struggle to cope with the costs. Balwinder Dhoot, director of sustainability at the Food and Drink Federation recently told MPs the costs would “run into hundreds of millions of pounds a year across the industry.”
Meanwhile, UK ministers have urged the EU to provide better data on how British residence applications after Brexit are progressing.
Foreign Office minister Leo Docherty suggested the UK was providing “extensive” data on citizens from across the trade bloc who lived in the UK, and called on member states and the European Commission to do more to provide the same.
In the UK, the government established the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) to keep track of how citizens rights obligations were being adhered to, while the EU Commission carries out the same role on the mainland.
Mr Docherty said that of the 5.7 million EU citizens living in the UK, the IMA received 237 complaints in 2021, and 209 in 2022.