ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Over the past week the House of Lords has been publishing a report every day setting out what it thinks the UK’s priorities for Brexit negotiations should be, so what were their main findings?  Well I’m joined by Lord Boswell, Chairman of the Lords EU Committee, a very good morning to you Lord Boswell.  Well I suppose it has been like a Brexit advent calendar, one a day for the last week and the overall impression I’ve got from reading it …

LORD BOSWELL: I’ve not heard it described like that!

DM: The overall impression is that it is going to be very complex, goes without saying.

LORD BOSWELL: Well it is going to be very complex but there’s no point holding back from the discussion, I think we’ve waited six months for a proper public discussion, we’re beginning to pick the threads of one up now.  We’ve had some interesting comments this week, Philip Hammond, David Davis, Nick Clegg, and I think we’re beginning to focus on the reality of what it’s going to mean for this country.

DM: So you picked out some of the most significant concerns and areas, let’s run through them as quickly as we can.  Ireland and Northern Ireland, was it your conclusion that some kind of border-free area can be maintained between Northern Ireland and the Republic?

LORD BOSWELL: I think the strong feeling is it has to be but it is very difficult to fit in with a system where we leave the single market so some very careful thought has to be done between our governments to come up with a deal which can fold into the final negotiations.

DM: I know we’re skipping along very quickly but our time is limited, trade – we could spend hours discussing that on its own.  Do you have a sense that, it’s been bandied around a lot that free trade is the answer to it all, free trade has downsides as well as upsides for those signing up to agreements.  

LORD BOSWELL: The thing about modern trade is that it is about standards and rules as well as the movement of goods and if you are going to trade widely you are going to have to have some agreement on the standards on which you trade, so there is an element of international agreement required whatever we decide to do.  We are going to look into further details on this matter but it is absolutely central to the negotiations.

DM: And did you take at face value what we keep hearing from the other members of the European Union, the other 27, that the four freedoms which relate to being a member of the single market, they are absolutely untouchable?

LORD BOSWELL: Well we never take things at face value if we can avoid it but on the other hand they do feel strongly about this and there will have to be trade- offs in the final negotiations if we are going to get a deal which is beneficial to this country and which everyone can live with.

DM: You looked into acquired rights, did that include acquired liabilities as well which was much discussed last week when it emerged that the EU may ask for – and figures have been bandied around - £50 or 60 billion or indeed euros, for the UK to exit, these the liabilities that extend way beyond Brexit?

LORD BOSWELL: Well certainly there are liabilities and that will be a very tough negotiation when we get into it.  Our specialist committee is going to look a little more into the whole question of the EU budget and the implications of that for the final negotiations but I think just the budget deal may be possible but it won’t be by any means the most complicated part of a jigsaw.

DM: What will be?  The issue again discussed, the issue of UK citizens living in EU countries and vice versa?

LORD BOSWELL: Well we want to get an early resolution of that matter because I don't think you can treat people as a part of the negotiations, as a bargaining chip and I think everyone wants to have a fair outcome so that people who live and work here feel safe and secure and our own citizens living abroad also aren’t put under any pressure.

DM: The thorny issue of financial services then you looked into and this one a huge one in terms of our economy and the jealous eyes on the continent looking at some of the industry, some of the banks and others working here.  I read an interview the other week with Marc Rutter, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, saying he is getting about six calls a day about relocating.

LORD BOSWELL: Well you do always get a lot of this kind of speculation but what we have to remember is that the City of London functions as the financial centre not just for Britain but for the whole of the European Union and if it moves from London it isn’t necessarily going to go to Amsterdam or Frankfurt or Paris, it may end up in New York, so it is most important that that is thought about carefully and in particular this whole question of financial passporting because a lot of firms have just assumed the passport, they’ve known they’ve been able to trade and the exact definition of how that will work in the future is going to be critically important to their continuing in this country.

DM: Did you get a sense though of how important a plan is for these banks and others making long term plans?  We’re hearing rumblings from Japanese banks saying they’ve got six months, they need to know within that time.

LORD BOSWELL: Well we can’t necessarily speculate the period but of course people trading and with responsibility to their shareholders and stakeholders and to their employees, have to take a responsible and legal view of their duties, so we do need to get clarification in this and it may well be another theme that is coming out in all these reports, is that we will need longer to be able to adjust to the period, the eventual outcome of the negotiations.

DM: So you’re talking there about some kind of transitional arrangement, did you speculate as to how long that might be?

LORD BOSWELL: Well I think we’ll need to do further work before we come up with something but we will want to be pretty clear about the overall negotiating structure before the government goes into this or indeed we’ve signed up to Article50 as we’re promised, in the spring.  

DM: I’m just touching on all the areas you touched on, security was the last one, I mean it’s in all country’s interests to co-operate, to continue that co-operation on security is it not?

LORD BOSWELL: Well it is strongly recognised that it should be but of course when you co-operate you have again to co-operate within an international structure and some standards and the right institutions.  We have Europol at the moment which has a British lead for example, we’ve taken a very important role in that and we don’t want to lose that opportunity because it is central to our security but also to our neighbours as well and if I may say, the final report we did which came out yesterday, was on an apparently quite different subject about fisheries.  The point about that is we are up against, if I can put it that way, European countries in the North Sea or in the English Channel and we have to be able to manage these stocks together whether or not we’re part of the European Union so we can’t cut ourselves off from those decisions, we need to find ways of working it.

DM: Well plenty of Christmas reading there if you’re that way inclined.  We’re out of time, Lord Boswell, thank you very much indeed for speaking to us.