Chamber and committees

Would the member not consider, given all that he has heard and what the report says, that Brexit is not done? People are paying for it day in, day out and week in, week out. Businesses are losing money, we are losing trade and exports are being lost. Brexit is far from done. Can he not see that from the report?

Will Neil Bibby give way?

I return to the point that I was trying to make to Neil Bibby. We heard from Stephen Kerr that Brexit was done, but, somewhat awkwardly, he had to admit that the leg that required border controls for coming into this country had not been implemented. Those two things do not sit side by side. I am not asking for the Labour Government’s view, but what is Martin Whitfield’s view about when those measures should be introduced?

I will repeat what the seafood industry has said. Salmon Scotland has reported a £100 million loss in the value of exports to the EU since 2019. I was about to mention the NFUS, which has made it clear that the

“consequence for growers has been immediate and grave”.

Although we welcome the committee’s support for securing a derogation for Scottish seed potatoes, we cannot afford to see other sectors face similar fates.

As we have heard, the situation in Northern Ireland provides a stark contrast. The benefits that Scotland would have had as an independent and English-speaking member of the EU were huge at the point of Brexit. Instead, that value has gone to Ireland and, to some extent, to Northern Ireland, which, like Scotland, voted to remain part of the EU. At the committee has heard, Scottish businesses are watching Northern Ireland as it uses its unique status to attract investment and trade that we can no longer access under the TCA. That unequal treatment only strengthens the case for Scotland to chart its own course.

In a previous inquiry, the committee heard how Brexit has decimated the music industry in Scotland and the rest of the UK because people are unable to participate in festivals across the EU.

In its recent manifesto, the Labour Party promised to reset the relationships. That is a step in the right direction, but—let us be honest—tweaking the TCA will never bring us back to the frictionless trade that we once enjoyed. The only way to truly restore Scotland’s prosperity is through rejoining the single market.

Stephen Kerr said that it was not a hard Brexit. I remember Daniel Hannan and Boris Johnson saying that they were not going to touch the single market—that it was not about the single market—but they lied, because they eventually did exactly that. They took the hard Brexit that they said they would not take. I think that some people need to research and understand what free markets are about. In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher said that the single European market would be the best thing ever for the UK, which view seems to have been turned on its head by the current crop of Conservatives.

A single market works only if it has regulation and measures that prevent it from going out of control. To find the Labour Party, to some extent, and the Conservatives trying to deny the reality of the damage that Brexit is causing is unbelievable. It has been disastrous for our economy, and our businesses deserve better. We hear parties say that they are champions for small businesses, but they are willing to turn a blind eye to the billions that are being lost by our businesses since Brexit.

It is clear from the report that Scotland’s interests are best served by being part of that European family. If the UK Government is unwilling to listen to the calls for a better trading relationship, it is up to the people of Scotland. We had a discussion—

I have a fairly quick question to which the answer is probably obvious and is something that I should probably know. It goes back to Stephen Kerr’s second question, which was about reciprocity. Obviously, Brexit has been a complete mess on the goods side, as UK suppliers have had restrictions imposed, but for various reasons to do with infrastructure and so on, the same restrictions have not been imposed on EU goods coming into the country. Is reciprocity in relation to services, as it affects your organisations, being pretty well observed, or is there a sense in which the situation is one sided? In areas in which you are restricted from going into the EU, is that being observed in relation to EU representatives coming to this country, in your experience?

I will come back on that point.

You mentioned the Indian MOU. I know that there is no trade agreement with India even yet, but is that MOU active and producing benefits now? If it is, it shows that we can do these things outwith trade agreements.

Dr Marks, do you want to add anything?

Do you have anything to add, Professor Collins?

Our route for students was the stagiaire system, which was very successful and was used by many students to get real experience in Brussels. They got virtually no salary, but it was very useful. Of course, because we are no longer a member of the EU, we can no longer use those opportunities. I am just pointing that out.

Professor Collins, at some distance, you may be more able to point a finger of accountability. Could more be done by non-governmental service bodies to advance their interests, or does that have to wait for revision of the trade agreement? Once that is done, of course, that will be it for another few years. Is there more of a role for organisations themselves to get involved in order to achieve what they want to achieve, without Governments necessarily being involved?