Doing it for Britain! Boris vows to unleash Brexit freedoms with £9TN trade spectacular

Boris Johnson 'will stay to create Johnson era' says Tom Bower

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In a message to mark the fifth anniversary of the historic referendum vote to quit the EU, the Prime Minister hails the “momentous decision” to “take back control of our destiny.” He also celebrates the advances already made in regaining control of borders and reaching out for new trade deals across the globe. Mr Johnson said: “Five years ago the British people made the momentous decision to leave the European Union and take back control of our destiny.

“This Government got Brexit done and we’ve already reclaimed our money, laws, borders and waters.

“We’ve installed a new points-based system for immigration, delivered the fastest vaccine roll-out anywhere in Europe, negotiated trade deals with the EU and 68 other countries – including our first post-Brexit free trade agreement with Australia – and we’ve just begun negotiations to join the £9trillion Pacific trade area.

“Now as we recover from this pandemic, we will seize the true potential of our regained sovereignty to unite and level up our whole United Kingdom.

“With control over our regulations and subsidies, and with freeports driving new investment, we will spur innovation, jobs and renewal across every part of our country.

“The decision to leave the EU may now part of our history, but our clear mission is to utilise the freedoms it brings to shape a better future for our people.”

The UK Government has agreed post-Brexit trade deals with 66 countries covering annual trade estimated at around £183billion last year as well as the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU worth an estimated £660billion.

Senior Tory MP Dame Andrea Leadsom, who played a leading role in the Vote Leave campaign in the run up to the 2016 in-or-out referendum, also hailed the progress made since the Brexit vote.

She told the Daily Express: “Five years on, all the promise of Brexit still holds. The endless political squabbling set us back for a bit, then Covid stopped the world in its tracks.

“But the UK’s future as a free trading, independent nation is so clear.

“I am totally optimistic about our plans to promote jobs, growth and exports and to be a force for good in the world.”

Analysis of recent opinion polls by the elections expert Sir John Curtice yesterday showed voters are still split over the decision to quit the European bloc.

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Deltapoll surveys suggested the electorate would divide 50-50 over whether to Remain or Leave in a referendum if UK was still in the EU today.

But separate Kantar polls asking voters if they wanted to “stay out” or “rejoin” the EU found 54 percent wanted the UK to stay out of the bloc while 46 percent wanted to rejoin.

Prof Sir John, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, told a briefing hosted by the UK In A Changing Europe think tank: “Britain is still significantly divided over the merits of Brexit.”

He added: “On average, the most recent polls – pretty much all done by Deltapoll – it’s a 50-50 split.

“Ask people whether we should rejoin or stay out, you consistently find somewhat lower support for rejoining than for remaining, but we’re still looking at a society that is pretty divided down the middle.

“The reason for that is that relatively few people have changed their minds.

“Basically over four in five people say they would vote in exactly the same way they did five years ago.

“Those people who didn’t vote in 2016 have been pretty consistently two to one in favour of remaining when they’ve been asked their view.”

Pointing towards the Kantar polls, Sir John said: “Some but by no means the bulk of Remain voters do say – we’re out, I prefer we were not out but I’m not sure I’d vote to rejoin. We’re still divided.”

Prof Sir John added that the Brexit vote appeared to have “revolutionised” Tory support in the years since the referendum with Leave-backing former “Red Wall” Labour strongholds turning blue at the 2019 general election.

“The character of support for the Conservative Party, in particular, was little short of revolutionised by Brexit.

“Whereas in 2015 it was getting the support of 45 percent of those who wanted to Leave, by 2019 it was 73 percent,” Prof Sir John said.

“Labour is not showing any evidence of being able to particularly recover amongst Leave voters.

“And the Liberal Democrats have basically lost all the gains they made amongst Remain voters in 2019.”

rexit had also fuelled a rise in support for independence in Scotland, Prof Sir John added.

“Prior to the 2016 referendum, there was no relationship between people’s attitudes towards independence and their attitudes towards the EU.

“Once Brexit was voted for, that began to change. Support for independence is now much higher amongst those who are Europhiles as opposed to those who are Eurosceptics.

“All of the increased support for independence occurred among Remain voters.

“By the time of the 2019 general election of 55 percent support among Remain voters and 30 percent among Leave voters, that legacy is still with us now.

“Whatever the Prime Minister’s preference, the pursuit of Brexit has changed the character of support for independence,” he said.

Brexit-backing Tory MP Andrew Bridgen was last night “surprised” by the suggestion that only 54 percent of voters did not want to rejoin the EU.

“Now being an independent sovereign nation, I don’t believe the British public would ever give up that sovereignty again.

“We’ve seen with the Covid vaccine roll out the advantages of being independent and able to be nimble and not enmeshed in the sclerotic bureaucracy of the EU,” he said.

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Philip Hollobone, another Brexit-backing Tory, said: “Had we not left the EU, we would have been dragged into the vaccine procurement programme of the European Medicines Agency and instead of having a world-beating vaccine roll out, the UK would have been in the European slow lane.”

A Savanta ComRes poll last night showed Remain would edge a narrow re-run of the 2016 EU Referendum.

The poll organised to coincide with the five-year anniversary of the Brexit vote showed Remain beating Leave 51 percent to 49 percent if the 2016 referendum were held today, once those who are undecided have been removed.

It also suggested very little switching between the two sides since 2016, with 6 percent of Remainers now voting Leave, and 7 percent of Leavers now voting Remain.

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