Rejoining the EU

Perran Moon Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2026 Westminster Hall

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Meur ras, Sir Edward. It is an honour to serve under your chairship.

I thank the 239 constituents of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle who signed the petition following the debate here in September. In that debate, I set out how disastrous Brexit has been for Cornwall. Thanks to the late Member for Falmouth and Camborne, Candy Atherton, Cornwall was awarded more than £100 million a year in European objective 1 funding, which supported the Eden Project, Newquay airport and our universities.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Perran Moon]

As my hon. Friend is a Cornish MP, I will give way.

[Jayne Kirkham]

As a Cornish MP, I want to reinforce that. It supported the airport, the trains, United Downs geothermal, and businesses in Cornwall. We did so well from being, ironically, one of poorest regions in western Europe. I want to make a particular point about our farmers and fishers and the upcoming SPS agreement, which we hope will get across the line by 2027. Does my hon. Friend agree that the agreement will be so important for our farmers and fishers, and that we must make sure that we push it through?

[Perran Moon]

I wholeheartedly agree: for our farmers and our fishers, Brexit has been a disaster—I will come on to that.

We were promised in Cornwall that the funding would be replaced like for like, but it never was. The Brexit benefits were all smoke and mirrors. As my hon. Friend says, our farmers now compete with cheap imports, our fishermen face more bureaucracy, and our businesses face new trade barriers. Across Britain, 20,000 small businesses have stopped exporting to the EU. Farm exports to the EU fell 37% in the five years following the referendum. Brexit has been a tragic failure and Britain is infinitely weaker—economically, socially and culturally—because of it. It is interesting to listen to the hon. Members for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) and for East Wiltshire (Danny Kruger), who sound like two King Cnuts shouting at the sea while the waves of evidence that Brexit has been a failure crash over them.

I reiterate what I said in September: there were virtually no small boat crossings before the Brexit referendum. Why the increase? It is because we took the disastrous decision to leave the Dublin agreement and the Eurodac database without replacements. It is only since this Labour Government have started working collaboratively with our friends and colleagues in France that the number of people crossing the channel in small boats is down, year on year, by 44%. I therefore welcome the Prime Minister’s willingness to hold an honest conversation about our long-term relationship with Europe with all options on the table. As chair of the electric vehicle all-party parliamentary group, I am particularly concerned by the “Made in Europe” policy. I am delighted that the Prime Minister has just raised that issue at the Dispatch Box. Without an agreement, British-built electric vehicles could be excluded from subsidies available to EU-produced vehicles, placing UK manufacturers at a systemic disadvantage. I therefore urge Ministers to ensure that an agreement there remains a priority.

The question the Prime Minister has posed is: how can we contemplate another 10 years of failure? If we are not prepared to commit to the status quo, what are the alternatives? I hope that in coming weeks and months we can engage constructively, cross party, for the sake of our constituents and our country.