Thurrock Labour councillor and occasional commentator on Thurrock Nub News, Martin Kerin, makes a New Year's Day reflection on a new beginning

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II is no secret to anyone who knows me, or to anyone who follows Thurrock politics, that I am a Remainer. Not only did I vote Remain in 2016 - I actually campaigned, on the streets, for the official 'Britain Stronger in Europe' campaign.

As recently as September last year, I campaigned for a confirmatory referendum on a Deal/No Deal vs Remain option. Nothing between 2016 and now has changed my mind that our national interest is best served by being a member of the European Union. Indeed, I believe that we will re-join within my lifetime - there was a 41-year gap between the 1975 and 2016 referendums, so I should (just!) be around to see it happen…

All this being said, on Wednesday, 30 December 2020, our nation was caught between Boris Johnson's Brexit deal (officially titled the 'EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement') or a catastrophic No Deal.

As per the record, it was approved by a huge margin (521 votes to 73) thanks, in no small part, to the votes of the Labour Party. Keir Starmer took a lot flak in some quarters for opting to vote for the deal, rather than abstaining. However, with the fight between Remain and Leave regrettably now over, he was backed in this decision by 50% of Remainers (according to Opinion Polling). The sad reality is this: Remaining is, for this generation at least, no longer an option.

Mr Johnson described his deal as a 'very good deal.' It is certainly a very good deal for the EU, but not for us. The UK capitulation on tariffs for goods/services is the most obvious example of where Mr Johnson has fallen drastically short in the negotiations.

A tariff-free agreement on goods, but not services is excellent news for the EU, but terrible for the UK. Last year, the UK ran a surplus of £18 billion in financial and other services with the EU, but a deficit of £97 billion in goods. Even the chance to use state aid to massively re-orientate the UK economy has been squandered, too, with the concession that the UK will have to ensure that its subsidy regime respects key principles set out in the Agreement.

It is no surprise that it ended this way.

The only reason that the original Withdrawal Agreement was agreed in 2019 was because Mr Johnson agreed to a customs border in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from the rest of Great Britain.

This, remember, is something he had originally said that no Prime Minister could ever agree to. Following this, the EU negotiating team knew that all they had to do was sit and wait for the British negotiating team to give in. Even Mr Johnson's posturing on fishing ended with the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations accusing the Prime Minster of having 'bottled' it.

So, as of 11pm on New Year's Eve, the deal came into effect. As stated earlier, the spotlight had turned to the response of the Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer, and the Labour Party to the deal. I believe that he summed up the position we are in as a country perfectly when he described the deal as 'thin' and said: "A better deal could have been negotiated. But I accept that option has now gone."

With this reality in mind, it really was Boris Johnson's 'thin' deal vs the unthinkable No Deal. The national interest was best served by avoiding a No Deal. Therefore, the best decision available was to grudgingly accept and vote for the deal on offer.

It was a tough decision to back the deal, but making tough decisions is what leadership is all about. There were enough MPs who are Brextremist No Dealers or unreconciled Remainers to vote against the deal and potentially plunge us into the calamitous waters of No Deal either by design or accident. By voting for the deal, Labour unambiguously guaranteed that it would pass and stave off a potential disaster.

Some have said because the Eurosceptic hardliners in the European Research Group (ERG) of the Conservative Party eventually agreed to back the deal, Labour should have just abstained. In my opinion, the members of the ERG are not the sort of politicians you would want to follow. If Mr Starmer had waited for the ERG position to become clear before deciding his own, that would not have been the right thing to do.

Despite being a Remainer, I have many close family and friends who are Leavers.

Although I disagree with them, I do understand the motivations that drove them to vote Leave in 2016 and, in many cases, to continue to back the Leave cause right up to now. I equally understand why millions of people up and down the country in 'left-behind' communities saw Brexit as a once in a generation chance to strike back at a political system that has repeatedly failed and over-looked them.

Unfortunately, this EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement does nothing to address the massive de-industrialisation and brutal austerity which has ravaged the communities who voted to Leave in such high numbers.

This is because it has always been policy choices in Westminster, not Brussels, which have inflicted the damage. At least now, though, the bogeyman in Brussels cannot be blamed for the failings of home-grown politicians.

After the half decade we have had of arguing, posturing, unicorn-chasing and downright dishonesty, the deal on offer was the least worst option available. Unite, the UK's largest trade union, described the deal as 'a floor, not a ceiling.' This is a perfect analogy, assuming you are visualising a bare floor without carpets. Without Brussels to blame in future, the Prime Minister will have to answer for how he used this deal to make our country better. By 2024, the time could very well be ripe for Keir Starmer to build up from the 'floor' of the deal and to aim towards the ceiling.

So, we ended 2020 and began 2021 with a deal and an outcome that was the least worst option available – perhaps this is what should have been written on the side of the big red bus…