Local residents will know that I have been campaigning for Leave and so I welcome the result which Britain delivered last week.
After over 40 years of membership, it was high time to unshackle ourselves from a political project that has become protectionist, introspective, and unfit for purpose and the E.U.’s vision for the future, of further and further political, social and financial integration, was increasingly at odds with British values. Free from the control of the E.U, the British people will be free to govern themselves again, our business will be able to trade more globally, not merely with the near continent. We shall forge new trade and diplomatic relations with neighbours across the world, whist maintaining the close and important ties with our friends in Europe.
I appreciate however that there are a lot of people who don’t agree with the result, who didn’t expect it, or are understandably upset by it. However I want to urge the people of the Stockport area, whichever way they voted, to ignore the prophecies of doom which have evidently scared people, and to reassure you that, if handled correctly, this Brexit journey we now embark on will leave us better off in the long run.
We now need to go forward with unity in the country. There must be sensible, pragmatic and mature exit negotiations with the E.U. as a whole and individual nation state. We should ignore the hostility of the E.U. mandarins – who are already reacting with petulance, providing re-enforcement (as if any were needed) as to why we voted to leave, by attempting to dictate to us when the UK should appoint its new Prime Minister and to rush us into the exit process.
There is no immediate rush. We shall leave on our own terms, on terms that are best for Britain. The next Prime Minister and his or her Government will need to exit the E.U. and secure the right settlement: to get back control of our democracy; get back control of our money; and to get back control of our borders. And above all they will have a country to reunite and reassure that we made the right decision.
I am optimistic for the future. We may have said ‘No and Goodbye’ to the European Union, but we still say ‘Yes’ to the countries of Europe, and now also say ‘Hello’ to the wider world.