Devon MPs share their views on post-Brexit deal

The majority of Devon MPs have backed the post-Brexit deal with the European Union, saying it "takes back control of our laws, borders, money and trade".

MPs voted to pass the bill, approving the trade and cooperation agreement with the EU, by 521 votes to 73 – a majority of 448 – in the House of Commons just before the New Year.

After then being passed in the House of Lords, it meant that the UK severed its ties with the EU at 11pm on New Year's Eve, four and a half years after the Brexit referendum, with a new agreement which sets out a new business and security relationship between the UK and its biggest trading partner.

All Devon MPs, other than Labour's Ben Bradshaw, voted in favour of the deal, with the Exeter MP abstaining.

Speaking ahead of the vote, Neil Parish, MP for Tiverton and Honiton, said: "I will be voting for the deal, because it delivers on the mandate of the referendum result in 2016 and creates a new trading relationship with the EU, based on free trade and friendly co-operation.

"It ensures tariff free trade for our farmers, more resources for our fishing industry and will allow us to diverge in the future to raise standards of animal welfare, environmental protection and more.

"The Prime Minister and his team have done a sterling job. We must now rollout the brilliant British-made vaccine so we can regain our lives urgently and rebuild the economy outside the EU, better than ever, in 2021."

Speaking in the debate, he added: "The public have consistently voted to leave the EU over the last four and a half years, including in Tiverton and Honiton, but farmers in my constituency and across the whole United Kingdom will be pleased that we are leaving with a deal.

"We need to co-operate on the agreement so that we are not constantly fighting with the EU and ending up in arbitration. There are incentives on both sides in the deal to keep promises and to be proportionate. Clearly there will be some practical challenges for our businesses over the next few weeks and months.

"Leaving the EU's customs union and single market will be a big change. We now need to work hard as a country to overcome any challenges and seize the opportunities that being an independent sovereign state can bring.

"Let us raise our standards on animal welfare. Let us challenge public procurement and eat more food that we produce in this country. Let us lead the world on clean environmental cars and environmental protection. Let us catch more fish and regenerate our coastal communities. Let us roll up our sleeves, export more and attract more investment from all corners of the globe."

East Devon MP Simon Jupp, along with Anthony Mangnall (Totnes) and Selaine Saxby (North Devon) - all new Conservative MPs elected last December - signed a vote letter confirming they would vote for the deal.

It said: "When we stood for election last year we pledged to get Brexit done and end the years of gridlock in parliament so we could deliver on what the British people voted for in 2016.

"One of our first acts as MPs was to vote for the withdrawal agreement that gone Brexit done and saw us leave the European Union on January 31. The trade deal delvers on the result of the referendum and what the

British people voted for at last year's General Election, explicitly:

• The deal ends the role of the European Court of Justice
• The deal ends the requirement to follow EU Law
• The deal means we are outside the Single Market and Customs Union
• The deal provides for zero tariffs and zero quotes in the trade of good, the first trade deal the EU has ever agreed on this basis
• The deal recognised UK sovereignty over our fishing waters
• The deal continues our co-operation on law enforcement and emerging security challenges
• The deal protects the UK's internal market and Northern Ireland's place within it

"We won our seats on an ambitious manifesto that included getting Brexit done and we have. We promised to take back control of our laws, borders and money, and we are.

"This deal delivers on what the British people voted for and we will back this deal."

Mr Jupp added: "I'm backing the deal. We are finally taking back control of our laws, borders, money and trade."

But Labour MP Ben Bradshaw, a Brexit-critic who represents Exeter, abstained on the deal.

He said: "I shall be voting for Labour's amendments, which fill some of the worrying gaps in Johnson's deal, but, assuming these don't pass, I will abstain on the main motion.

"This is an extremely poor deal – the first trade deal in history to erect new barriers and bureaucracy, rather than remove them and, while I wouldn't vote against it, as the implication of that is to support no deal, I cannot give this poor deal my endorsement."