It’s not easy to upstage the King’s Speech. It’s the centrepiece of the state opening of Parliament, full of pomp and ceremony, with the King and Queen in all their finery, accompanied by their courtiers, to announce the government’s plans for a new parliamentary year.
But the chaos in No 10 – with the PM steadfastly refusing to step down (as I write this) amid mass ministerial resignations – has so wholly dominated the news agenda this week that the unveiling of the government’s ‘plans’ for the next Parliament – like something out of The Thick of It – have been almost wholly ignored.
That’s astonishing because the King’s Speech, while missing a critical opportunity to offer businesses relief on energy bills, business rates and employment costs, contains an incredibly important and contentious bill. The European Partnership Bill will enable the government to alter British law automatically so the UK’s food and agricultural standards are aligned with the EU.
With little media coverage of this ‘reverse Brexit’ manoeuvre (outside of The Grocer) ahead of the recent local and national elections, I would also contend that few people seem to understand its significance. And there’s an assumption that ‘dynamic EU realignment’ is good news for the food and drink industry, which has paid a heavy price following Brexit, with exporters particularly impacted. The government claims the move will benefit the economy to the tune of £5bn per annum and help lower food prices. And this week a new report from Andersons claimed an £80m boost per year for meat exporters alone.
But this EU reset and the upcoming Sanitary & Phytosanitary deal the government hopes to strike cannot simply turn back time. And the FDF, BRC and FSA have all warned that dynamic realignment is “harder than Brexit”. One of the reasons is the speed at which the government wants to ‘get Brexit undone’. And its projections seem unrealistic. At best it will take years to recover the £4bn the food and drink industry has lost as a result of Brexit. But as we reported last week, experts are warning that red tape for importers will not be eliminated, and research from The Growth Commission claims EU realignment could in fact cost as much as £15bn (or 0.5% of GDP). It’s a high stakes game the government is playing. And we don’t even know who will be in charge.
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