On the 12th of December the nation was united under a whopping 365 seats, as this is a clear mandate for the so-called “one-nation Conservative” party. However, what does this mean for us? Boris Johnson has a clear mandate to “Get Brexit Done”, but how will this affect our day-to-day lives? The main concerns are that of the effect on business, work, imports and those who have taken advantage of the freedom of movement clause. The Bill itself -which is due to be scrutinised by the House of Lords- will be formally put to the European Parliament for approval on the 31st January and should it be approved the U.K. will have formally left the EU, however this will lead to a transition period that will last until the 31st December. During this time the agreements that have been laid out in the Brexit deal will gradually put into place.
Close to home, we have seen the removal of the “backstop” along the Irish-Northern Irish border, instead it is replaced with custom checks in ports once the goods have been received in mainland ports. Furthermore, there will be no EU tariffs will be put on the items, the same can be said for personal items carried across the border. The particular effort in this regard is made in order to honour the Good Friday Agreement, which promises no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Furthermore, those who are currently using the freedom of movement clause -the ability for EU and UK nationals to travel, work and live anywhere in the EU/U.K. will be able to continue residing in the EU and moving around within the transition period, after this they may stay and apply for a permanent residency after 5 years. It is currently unknown whether then can continue moving from country to country after the 31st December but they will be able to stay in their current country of residence.
With regards to our rights, we will remain on par with the EU regarding our rights, aid and the climate change emergency. In the future there is a possibility of triggering the Political Declaration, which will provide the standard for a future trade deal, however, this was devised by May and Johnson is far more enthusiastic about independent and international trade, particularly with the US. This means that UK business will be subject to tariffs when dealing with the EU, nevertheless, statistics from the conversation room state that 66% of the UK “expressed very or fairly positive views towards international trade”. Our relationship with the US, a relationship that, according to the US chamber is our largest export market (the US import $110 billion in goods and services from the UK) is said to only improve. In fact, Donald Trump is said to be “excited” by the prospects of a closer UK/US relationship.
The certainty and unity of the Conservative will and has certainly strengthened helped to stabilise our faltering economy, only hours after the announcement of Johnson’s victory UK stock and the pound shot higher, the pound strengthening 2% against the dollar and 1.3% against the euro (figures taken from CNN). Also, economist Kallum Pickering has predicted that the Johnson victory will certainly boost the economy, he predicted a 1.8% growth in 2020 and a 2.1% growth rate in 2020, hopeful though this is the market was damaged considerably by the UK’s choice to leave the EU and may so be again as Boris implicates his Brexit deal.