The Guardian’s splash today looks like bad news for the PM. ‘Leaked recording shows Theresa May is ‘ignoring her own warnings’ on Brexit’, the paper says on its front page. The story centres around a recording of May giving a speech at Goldman Sachs in the run-up to the referendum. In the tape, which was recorded in May, the future PM tells bankers that:
‘I think the economic arguments (of staying in the EU) are clear. I think being part of a 500 million population trading bloc is significant for us. I think one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe. And I think if we are not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need actually to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence. So I would think there are definite benefits for us in economic terms.’
If you feel slightly underwhelmed by what May actually said, you’re probably not alone. In fact, while this speech was made in private, it’s not all that dissimilar from the speech she made in public in April when she spelled out her views on the referendum. So what did she say during her brief spell off the fence ahead of June’s vote? On the risk of companies moving to Europe if Britain left the EU, she said:
‘If we were not in the European Union… London’s position as the world’s leading financial centre would be in danger. The banks may be unpopular, but this is no small risk: financial services account for more than seven per cent of our economic output, thirteen per cent of our exports, a trade surplus of almost £60 billion – and more than one million British jobs.’
On the size of Europe’s trading bloc, she said:
‘The headline facts of Britain’s trade with Europe are clear. The EU is a single market of more than 500 million people…So the single market accounts for a huge volume of our trade’
And she also made a similar pitch for the economic argument for staying in the EU when she said:
‘The economic case for remaining inside the European Union isn’t therefore just about risk, but about opportunity’
Most of which tells us that what May was saying in public, she was also saying behind the gilded closed doors of Goldman Sachs. Admittedly, it’s something of a surprise that Theresa May – the Prime Minister who told the Tory party conference weeks ago that she wanted to take on the ‘international elite’ – was giving a private speech at Goldman Sachs. That in itself is a worthy point on which to criticise May. But her stance on Brexit ‘revealed’ in the Guardian today is not controversial. Of course, Theresa May has changed tack on the referendum. But that’s hardly news. May, the Home Secretary who backed Remain, is now the PM saying that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and vowing to make a success of leaving Europe. Yes, that’s different from what she said before the actual vote. But you don’t need a leaked recording to tell you that.
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