Today is one of the last plenary session before the UK leaves the European Union.

We may be going, but the impacts of my government’s decision will carry on far into
the future.

And today – on a day when we have discussed the tragic bushfires that have
decimated Australia, laying waste to communities and wiping out over half a billion
unique animals – the question of our future has never been more important.

People in the UK can say it doesn’t matter; that Australia is half the world away.

But they can ask the people of Yorkshire, who had their homes and livelihoods
devastated by flooding, about that.

After those floods, the European Union were there to offer millions of pounds in
disaster relief funding – an offer the UK government rejected.

This, in spite of the lies told during the referendum about how little being part of this
union has benefitted the UK.

In 1980, huge swathes of British coastline were consigned to the rubbish heap –
almost literally. Rubbish and raw sewage polluted our water and left our beaches
useless and unsightly.

Just forty years later, 99% of the UK’s 632 beaches have been designated safe for
swimming, able to be enjoyed by families across the country.

None of this would have been possible but for the thirty billion pounds of funding
funnelled into the clean up by EU directives.

When we leave the EU, these kinds of projects will be left in the hands of Boris
Johnson’s government to fund.

Do you trust them?

Do you trust them to keep our beaches clean and safe for our families and children?

Do you trust them to keep helping the RSPB safeguard the native species that
European investment brought back from the brink of extinction, such as the bittern,
the great crested newt, and the hen harrier?

Do you trust them to protect the interests of our National Trust farmers as they face
down a future that becomes more uncertain with each passing day?

Brexit is not about taking back control – it’s about giving control over. Not from
Brussels to the British public, but from a community of evolving, like-minded
democracies to a bunch of right-wing career politicians and hedge fund managers.
Who will be there to speak up for the famers, and the wildlife, and the great British
countryside?

Who will be there when the floods come again, or the moorland fires return?

Brexit has painted the EU as a shapeless thing with no benefit to the British people. It
is so much more than that. It is an organisation that has worked tirelessly to invest in
a shared future that our children and our children’s children can enjoy.

A future with better beaches than 1970, for one thing. And where you can still see
rare wildlife that would otherwise have been lost.

Current events in Australia must be a warning to every country that should be taken
seriously.

The climate crisis doesn’t respect international boundaries. We should be working

together towards shared goals that will ensure the planet’s future, not running away
from scrutiny and oversight.

It is up to the elected representatives of every nation to take decisions that put the
best interests of the people before profits and political rivalries.

Without the European Union, we have no choice but to all put our faith in Boris
Johnson and his government.

But trust is something earned, not something you have by right – a concept some
Conservatives, including our Prime Minister, will surely struggle with.