Chequer's plan would be disaster

Dear Sir,

The proposals for Brexit, as thrashed out at Chequers by our Prime Minister, will be a disaster for our country as they fail to protect the services sector of the U.K. economy which accounts for about 80% of our G.D.P. The financial services sector alone directly employs about 1.1 million people and in 2017 contributed £ 27.3 billion to the Exchequer. Catherine McGuinness, the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee of the City of London Corporation stated that the Chequers Plan was a real blow for the U.K.'s financial and related professional services sector and warned that the sector would be less able to create jobs, generate tax and support growth across the wider economy. Of 222 financial service companies tracked by Ernst and Young more than a third have said they are considering or have confirmed that they are transferring operations and/or staff from the U.K. to the E.U.

There are only two crumbs of comfort from the Prime Minister's Chequers Plan; firstly, the Prime Minister is trying to come up with a device which enables Just In Time Manufacturing with the E.U. to continue and thereby try to protect manufacturing jobs but these proposals will probably fail because they do not comply with the E.U.'s rules and regulations whereby no third country is allowed to collect customs and tariffs on the E.U.'s behalf,

secondly, the Prime Minister's proposals aim to maintain the E.U.'s regulations in respect of food standards so that we will not have to suffer, for instance, chlorinated chicken from the United States of America in our sandwiches or in meals provided by restaurants and take away outlets.

On 25th July, 2018, your newspaper published a letter from our Member of Parliament, Fiona Bruce, in which she rejected the Prime Minister's Chequers Plan for completely the wrong reasons. Mrs Bruce claims that the proposals do not recover the U.K.'s Sovereignty. However, Mrs Bruce does not seem to me to grasp the implications of her stance which will adversely affect food quality standards and adversely affect employment in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing accounts for about 10% of the U.K.'s G.D.P. and directly employs about 2.6 million people.

Professor Minford, about the only economist who thinks Brexit is a good idea, admits that Brexit will "mostly eliminate manufacturing" in the U.K.

The Prime Minister's Brexit Plans would be a disaster for our country but Mrs Bruce's plans are even worse.

Congleton Constituency residents concerned about the impact of lowering food standards on the health of their families as well those who work in or have family or friends directly or indirectly working in the manufacturing sector may wish to consider the devastating impact of the Brexit policy supported by Mrs Bruce when they come to cast their vote in next May's local elections and in the next General Election.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Douglas,

2 Hollycroft,

Congleton CW12 4SH.