Prime Minister said:
Good morning,
We left the EU on January 31 and delivered on the largest
democratic mandate in the history of this country.
And since then we have been in a transition period obeying EU
law, paying our fees – as a non-voting member - working on the
future relationship we hope to enjoy with our friends and
partners from January.
And from the outset we were totally clear that we wanted nothing
more complicated than a Canada-style relationship, based on
friendship and free trade.
To judge by the latest EU summit in Brussels that won’t work for
our EU partners. They want the continued ability to control our
legislative freedom, our fisheries, in a way that is obviously
unacceptable to an independent country.
And since we have only ten weeks until the end of the transition
period on January 1, I have to make a judgment about the likely
outcome and to get us all ready.
And given that they have refused to negotiate seriously for much
of the last few months, and given that this summit appears
explicitly to rule out a Canada-style deal, I have concluded that
we should get ready for January 1 with arrangements that are more
like Australia’s based on simple principles of global free trade.
And we can do it, because we always knew that there would be
change on January 1 whatever type of relationship we had.
And so now is the time for our businesses to get ready, and for
hauliers to get ready, and for travellers to get ready.
And of course we are willing to discuss the practicalities with
our friends where a lot of progress has already been made, by the
way, on such issues as social security, and aviation, nuclear
cooperation and so on.
But for whatever reason it is clear from the summit that after 45
years of membership they are not willing - unless there is some
fundamental change of approach - to offer this country the same
terms as Canada.
And so with high hearts and complete confidence we will prepare
to embrace the alternative.
And we will prosper mightily as an independent free trading
nation, controlling our own borders, our fisheries, and setting
our own laws.
And in the meantime the government will be focussing on tackling
COVID and building back better so that 2021 is a year of recovery
and renewal.
Thank you very much.
