Do you think that many people have a concern that the EU as a whole system is democratic or not or is it transparent or not what are your views on it?
On Being Euro-sceptic
I’m openly Euro-sceptic. I do not like a lot of things about the European Union. I don’t like the way that people do not know who the members of their European Parliament are. Nobody I know knows who their MEPs are.
Lack of Accountability
There is no accountability or responsibility where MEPs are concerned. They don’t know who their constituents are, and their constituents don’t know who they are. Whereas in our House of Commons, everyone knows who their MP is, and the MP knows who their constituents are.
The Strasbourg Move
The whole Parliament moves for one week a month to Strasbourg from Brussels. It is ridiculous, and what a waste of time and money. Can you imagine if we here in Westminster had to move to Scotland every month for a week or two? It would be ridiculous to do that.
The Euro
The fact is that the euro is an absolute disaster. One size cannot fit all. Thank God we didn’t join the euro.
Schengen
I used to think that Britain lost out on tourists and business visas by not being a member of Schengen. Now, because of the migration crisis and for security reasons, we are fortunate not to be in Schengen. So whichever way you look at it, the European Union has a lot that is wrong with it.
Why I Still Believe We Should Remain
But despite all that, I still believe we should remain part of the European Union. Of course, you hear the argument that the European Union tells us what to do, that all our laws are formed by the European Union, and that all the red tape that comes from the European Union is an absolute hindrance to our business.
On Red Tape and Business
Well, let me tell you as a businessman, these Brexiteers who talk about all this have never run a business in their lives. Let me tell you, which business has Boris Johnson ever run? Which business has Michael Gove ever run? And yet they talk about red tape in business. I can assure you, I built Cobra Beer from scratch without thinking about red tape from the European Union every day. I was able to build it because we actually have one of the most open economies in the world, and we have the highest inward investment in the world right here in the UK because we are an open economy.
The hurdles that you face as a businessperson are not European Union red tape and regulation. The hurdles here are our homegrown regulations and red tape, like our tax. Our tax system is so complex that every year it increases. Our tax code runs to thousands of pages, and that has nothing to do with the European Union. That is our own taxation. Our planning laws and our housing rules are all our own, nothing to do with the European Union. So this is absolute nonsense. Yes, there is some red tape we don’t like, but it doesn’t stop us from being successful.
On Sovereignty
And then they say, “Well, all the laws are made by the European Union.” That, again, is absolute nonsense. In reality, we do what we want to. We’re part of the European Union, but we’re not part of the euro. We will never join the euro. We’re part of the European Union, but we are not part of Schengen, and we will not join Schengen. So where is our loss of sovereignty? And do we measure our roads in kilometres? We measure in miles because we choose to, and the European Union cannot tell us to do otherwise. So where is our loss of sovereignty? This is absolute nonsense. In practical terms, our Parliament is always sovereign. At the end of the day, we can do whatever we want to, and I have given you the fundamental examples.
On a “United States of Europe” and a European Army
In terms of a United States of Europe, there is scaremongering that there is going to be further unification and that there is going to be a United States of Europe. Believe you me, there will never be a United States of Europe, and if there is one, we are not going to be a member of it. As for a European army, we have our own independent army. We are not going to join any European army. We are part of NATO. So again, there is scaremongering that our army is going to be subsumed into a European Union army. This is nonsense. When it boils down to it, this country does what it wants to. Europe can never, ever tell us what to do. I don’t know what world these Brexiteers are living in if they don’t realise the fundamentals.
On the £350 Million Figure
The Brexiteer argument goes, “You cost us around 350 million pounds a week, which is enough to build new NHS hospitals every week, and we get less than half of this money back.”
This figure of 350 million pounds a week that we contribute to the European Union is such misleading data. What about the fact that the 350 million pounds is a gross figure? We get money back from it. The net figure is 150 million pounds a week. We actually contribute just over 8 billion pounds a year to the European Union, and that is the actual figure.
On Trade with the EU
The Brexiteer argument continues, “It is a slowly dying bloc. When we joined it, trade with it was around 67 per cent. Now, like Norway’s, it is only around 43 per cent. So what is the point of joining a bloc which is already in a declining state? And why can’t we be like Switzerland and Norway, which are not in the EU but are still prospering? For example, Switzerland’s GDP is almost double the UK’s.”
These comparisons are so misleading. As part of the European Union, we are part of a 500 million strong area, the biggest trading bloc in the world. If our trade with the European Union as a percentage of our overall trade has declined, it is because we are also doing business with other parts of the world which have been emerging. The rise of China, the rise of India and the rise of Asia are all happening, so of course we will be doing business with those countries as well, and as a percentage of trade the EU’s share will fall. That does not mean the European Union is not, right now as we speak, 50 per cent of our trade. 44 per cent of our exports and 55 per cent of our imports are with the European Union. Even if that is declining, that is still a huge figure.
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