We asked you to submit your questions to candidates standing in the 2024 General Election.
From all your submissions, we chose 10 that represented the broad issues you wanted answers to.
We asked every candidate we had contact details for to respond.
We’ll be publishing them in the run-up to the General Election with the responses from the candidates who replied from each constituency.
These are the answers are from candidates standing in the Barrow & Furness constituency.
Your question:
What will you do to address the damage caused by Brexit, and what will you do to improve trade with the EU?
Adrian Waite, Liberal Democrats
I voted Remain in the European Union referendum and was disappointed with the result.
However, I was horrified by the choices that the government made in negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union.
They chose to do it in a way that has done enormous damage to Britain’s trade, economy and standing in the world.
Brexit need not have caused the scale of damage that it has done. That was the government’s choice.
Liberal Democrats would mend Britain’s broken relationship with Europe by following our four stage roadmap:
- Taking initial unilateral steps to rebuild the relationship, starting by declaring a fundamental change in Britain’s approach and improving channels for foreign policy co-operation.
- Rebuilding confidence through seeking to agree partnerships or associations with European Union agencies and programmes such as the European Aviation Safety Agency, Erasmus Plus, scientific programmes, climate and environment initiatives, and co-operation on defence, security and crime.
- Deepening the trading relationship with critical steps for the British economy, including negotiating comprehensive veterinary and plant health agreements and mutual recognition agreements.
- Finally, once ties of trust and friendship have been renewed, and the damage the Conservatives have caused to trade between Britain and the European Union has begun to be repaired, we would aim to place the Britain-European Union relationship on a more formal and stable footing by seeking to join the Single Market.
All these measures will help to restore the British economy and the prosperity and opportunities of its citizens and are also essential steps on the road to European Union membership that remains our longer-term objective.
Barry Morgan, Reform UK
Wrong question. We would work to reduce and eliminate non-tariff barriers erected by the unenlightened EU bureaucracy while expanding global trade via bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
Moreover, Reform is in alliance with Northern Ireland’s Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) which rejects Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal and the Windsor Agreement.
Lisa Morgan, Party of Women
Not my core concern for this election.
