Raab accused of ‘demeaning his office’ as Labour MP says no-deal was never raised

DOMINIC Raab has been accused of “misleading the public” over no-deal Brexit and bringing his post of Foreign Secretary “into disrepute”.

Labour former Foreign Office minister Ben Bradshaw has written to the Foreign Secretary calling on him to apologise for remarks on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier this week.

He said Mr Raab had claimed the prospect of a no-deal exit from the European Union was “widely discussed and considered a realistic prospect during the 2016 EU referendum”. Mr Bradshaw said the claim there is a mandate for a no-deal Brexit is “deeply dishonest and demeans the office of Foreign Secretary”.

The Foreign Office said Mr Raab has given “tangible examples” of when all eventualities, including a no-deal, were raised in the run-up to the referendum.

In the letter, Mr Bradshaw told Mr Raab: “There appears to be no evidence at all of you ever suggesting that leaving the EU without a deal was a likely or possible outcome.

“Indeed, whenever the question was put to you, you suggested the opposite — you claimed that a new, better deal would be negotiated with the EU if people voted to leave. You said the UK would of course retain a strong trading relationship with Europe and would likely get a bespoke deal, and stated, ‘the idea that Britain would be apocalyptically off the cliff edge if we left the EU is silly’.

“For you to now try and claim a democratic mandate for no deal, despite failing to discuss the possibility of such an outcome during the referendum, is deeply dishonest and demeans the office of Foreign Secretary.”

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The Foreign Secretary has given tangible examples of when all eventualities, including a no-deal Brexit, were raised in the run-up to the referendum in 2016.”