Responding to the results of the 2024 General Election, Paul Browne, Chair of Cambridge for Europe, issued the following statement:
Cambridge for Europe welcomes the result of the General Election, and hopes that this marks the beginning of a new, more constructive, phase of the UK-EU relationship.
In particular we congratulate Charlotte Cane in Ely and East Cambridgeshire, Pippa Heylings in South Cambridgeshire and Ian Sollom in St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire on their election, and Daniel Zeichner on his re-election in Cambridge, and look forward to working with them over the coming years.
As they take office a key priority for the incoming Labour Government must be to work closely with our allies in the EU and NATO to safeguard democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe. They should start by committing to substantially increase military support for Ukraine, whose people are so courageously fighting to preserve their freedom and democracy from invasion by Putin’s Russian dictatorship.
If the Labour Government is serious about growing the UK economy it must move swiftly to tear down the barriers to trade and movement that leaving the EU created, and restore the opportunities that Brexit took from the people in the UK. Rejoining Erasmus+, introducing a youth mobility scheme and a fair deal for musicians, and negotiating alignment on agricultural, environmental and veterinary standards will all help, but in the longer term goals should be to restore reciprocal Freedom of Movement and rejoin the Single Market.
We believe that the UK’s future lies in rejoining the European Union, and the free and open Europe it represents. That is in the future, right now the challenge the new government faces is how to work with our friends and allies across the continent to ensure that freedom and openness is defended and strengthened in these difficult times.”
