Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster STEVE BARCLAY: Brexit-bashers miss the point – a return to uncontrolled immigration is no answer to Britain's challenges

Over the last few weeks, our supply chains have been well and truly tested.

Fundamental global pressures – whether it's the shortage of natural gas or lorry drivers – have been felt by businesses and families alike.

Yet while our supply chains creaked, they did not crack.

And thanks to the joint efforts of Government and industry, we can now see signs of return to stability at the petrol pump, where more fuel is being delivered than is being sold.

This has been consistently the case for more than a week.

I'm not saying that the challenges have gone away or that the problems are all sorted.

We are bolstering the number of lorry drivers over the winter and we are working with industry to overcome the challenges companies face ¿ whether that's a shortage of labour or difficulty getting But told of raw materials. Lorries are seen above at Dover in March

We are bolstering the number of lorry drivers over the winter and we are working with industry to overcome the challenges companies face – whether that's a shortage of labour or difficulty getting But told of raw materials. Lorries are seen above at Dover in March

But just as we acted quickly to get the Army involved in helping to deliver fuel – one of 24 measures we have put in place to tackle the shortage of truck drivers – we will work alongside the private sector to prevent problems where we foresee them.

We will tackle them when and where they arise.

Put simply, this Government stands ready to support business, particularly as it gears up for the busy Christmas period.

We are bolstering the number of lorry drivers over the winter and we are working with industry to overcome the challenges companies face – whether that's a shortage of labour or difficulty getting hold of raw materials.

We are also working to identify other sectors of the economy that might prove vulnerable to short-term disruption so that they can make contingency plans.

My department, the Cabinet Office, has convened a weekly Industry Taskforce and I have established a Supply Chains Intelligence Cell to advise.

Together, these will make sure the Government has the information it needs to tackle disruption effectively and efficiently wherever it rears its head.

We're going in with our eyes open and a plan in place.

On Friday, the Prime Minister appointed Dave Lewis as his Supply Chains Adviser.

Mr Lewis, the former head of Tesco, brings the expertise we need to ensure we're more resistant to global shocks in the future.

Just as we acted quickly to get the Army involved in helping to deliver fuel ¿ one of 24 measures we have put in place so to tackle the shortage of truck drivers ¿ we will work alongside the private sector to prevent problems where we foresee them

Just as we acted quickly to get the Army involved in helping to deliver fuel – one of 24 measures we have put in place so to tackle the shortage of truck drivers – we will work alongside the private sector to prevent problems where we foresee them

As we have already shown, we are ready to mobilise our Armed Forces to deliver short-term support when it is needed.

We are ready to mitigate any challenges that come our way this winter.

However, this isn't just a question of ironing out short-term wrinkles.

This is a fundamental conversation about the future of our country and our economy.

What kind of society do we want to be and what should the structure of our economy look like?

According to the Brexit-bashers, all of these are problems caused by our decision to leave the EU – and their answer is all too obvious.

They want the return of uncontrolled immigration.

As ever, they miss the point.

Their analysis ignores the global realities we are facing, such as the unprecedented demand for natural gas as world economies fire-up after the Covid shut down.

Or the shortage of 400,000 lorry driver right across mainland Europe.

The closure of Asian ports and factories due to the pandemic is another shock with major international consequences.

Their analysis ignores the global realities we are facing, such as the unprecedented demand for natural gas as world economies fire-up after the Covid shut down

Their analysis ignores the global realities we are facing, such as the unprecedented demand for natural gas as world economies fire-up after the Covid shut down

This is why Labour's solution of simply opening the floodgates to 100,000 additional foreign lorry drivers is so intrinsically flawed.

More fundamentally, it demonstrates that the Labour Party does not value British workers.

We must use our new-found freedoms outside the European Union to promote and champion our workers, rather than undercutting them with imported labour which dampens down wages and undermines the breadth of home-grown skills and talent.

This is what has happened for years – and people have had enough.

Brexit has put the nation on a different track.

It has given us a singular opportunity to drive up skills, standards and pay across the board.

And that is this Government's central mission: to level up the whole of the United Kingdom.

Tectonic shifts do not happen overnight, and this one will certainly require a period of adjustment.

The Government will be there to work with business on the steps ahead, however, just as we were during the pandemic.

The British economy is already growing strongly.

Gross Domestic Product was up by 4.8 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

Our economy is expected to grow more quickly than the those of the USA, France and Japan over the next two years.

What's more, at 4.6 per cent, the unemployment rate has now fallen for seven consecutive months and real wages are up 3.9 percent since the start of the pandemic.

Just this week, a new report showed that starting salaries have been rising at the fastest rate in the whole of the 24 years for which this data has been collected.

Our recovery from Covid is well under way.

Now it's up to us to deliver our plan to protect, support and create the highly-skilled, highly-paid employment that our United Kingdom deserves.

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