Matt Warman

By Matt Warman Boston & Skegness MP

The Bill allowing Article 50 to be triggered has now passed through both the Commons and the Lords without amendment.

Theresa May has the power to begin the process of taking the UK out of the EU, after a simple, straightforward piece of legislation won the overwhelming support of the elected house, and the eventual agreement of a Lords dominated by peers from parties who are variously not in government or in many cases don’t believe the Lords itself should exist.

Britain’s constitution may be unique, but it was never going to stand in the way of the will of the people.

So what now does this mean? It will be some time before the UK is entirely outside the EU, or able to end the free movement of people or do its own trade deals with countries individually.

But that is the path we are inexorably on – it is one Lincolnshire voted for and one which all its members of Parliament have now endorsed in the voting lobbies of the Commons.

Brexit means Brexit, and we unanimously believe we can make a success of it.

Practically, there will be conversations about how Britain can make sure we continue to trade with the EU and with the wider world on the best possible terms, and on how we make arrangements for workers who benefit the UK economy to have the freedom to work here, without unlimited numbers placing unlimited strains on our public services and our infrastructure.

And there will be conversations too with countries around the globe on what a new, global outlook looks like for the UK, building on our historical connections and on our geographic links.

Some would seek to characterise this as not so much a new world as a divorce. It couldn’t be further from that: the EU and the UK will continue to be linked commercially, delivering on the common market that many envisaged when they voted to ‘in’ in 1975 – but new arrangements will mean that Europe’s red tape will not be ours.

That raises the prospect both of a UK that is able to take what works from Brussels and leave what wouldn’t leave all of us better off, and it also means that Westminster and local council politicians will be responsible for more than they have been over the past 40 years or so.

So taking back control means taking more responsibility – no government in future will be able to blame the worst of any policy on Brussels, because adopting a Brussels policy (or not) will be a choice that is based on the widest national interest.

It will require politicians to be more transparent, more open and more willing to explain themselves than ever before.

In a post-EU world, there will be far more factors affecting decisions than ever before, and there will be a need to weigh up a wider host of issues than ever before.

Such responsibility may be daunting – but it brings with it a world that is wider than in a generation.

Matt Warman is the Conservative MP for the Boston and Skegness constituency.

By Matt Warman Boston & Skegness MP

Depending on your starting point, Britain stands either at the dawn of a bright new era or on the brink of a precipice: whether it is Brexit or the election of Donald Trump, the year since last June has brought with it a series of extraordinarily radical changes, all of them going against what pollsters and experts predicted.

There is one over-arching and new theme emerging, however, and it takes people by surprise: whether it is President Trump’s ban on some people from some countries entering the USA or Theresa May delivering on Brexit, politicians around the world are discovering that keeping promises counts for more than any nuance in a manifesto.

It is, of course, sad that it should come to this: popular faith in politics is so low that many expected politicians really would seek to renege on the result of the referendum on our EU membership, falling back on some legalistic nonsense about it only being ‘advisory’.

Many others thought that there was nothing more certain than Hillary Clinton’s elevation to the White House.

The lesson is a brutal but simple one: democracy itself only works when voters get what they voted for.

In four years’ time, President Trump will be judged on what he has delivered.

In 2020, a government that has not ensured Britain has left the European Union could expect to be treated harshly indeed.

If this last year has taught us anything, it should be that administrations elected on radical platforms must be judged on radical delivery.

For me, the raft of sleazy headlines around politicians in the early 90s, and through the age of Blairite spin, reinforced the idea in the public mind that politics was a grubby business, rather than a world populated by people who were largely genuinely public spirited.

The expenses scandal, revealed by The Daily Telegraph when I was working there, seemed for many to offer the proof that members of parliament were in it only for themselves.

In my experience, little could be further from the truth.

Only a mug would go in to politics thinking they could change the world overnight, or that it was a route to endless public adoration.

As Mr Trump is discovering, hard choices attract harder reactions, from supporters and opponents alike. That does not mean for a moment there is not a need to make them.

In Lincolnshire, we have our own hard choices, if not our own President Trump.

Should local government be reformed? How should local healthcare be reconfigured? Should police go where data says they’re needed or where the public says they’re wanted?

None of these offers a black and white choice. But the radical answer may yet be the hardest and the best on all those questions.

Perhaps Lincolnshire can learn more from the USA.

And perhaps, too, we can all learn something from the referendum and America: when people vote for change, it is because the status quo has not served everyone well.

And the need for change is as urgent as the value of democracy itself.

Matt Warman is the Conservative MP for the Boston and Skegness constituency.