NEW MOVE FOR INSTANT EU EXIT

Tory MPs pile on pressure to ditch Brussels for good

PLANS for a quick exit from the EU in the New Year are being considered by ministers, it emerged yesterday.

A proposal put forward by Tory MPs to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act and leave immediately is “on the table”, according to a senior Whitehall source.

The Government has said it will start the formal two-year process by triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

But the plan drawn up by former Cabinet minister John Redwood could see us quit much more quickly by repealing the 1972 Act and then simply informing Brussels that we have

left the EU. Brussels insiders have claimed such a move would be illegal but Mr Redwood disagrees.

“Article 50 states clearly that ‘any member state may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements’,” he said. “In the case of the UK this means passing an Act of Parliament.”

The Whitehall source said this option was among those being considered. The source added: “There is no definitive legal opinion on a quick Brexit so all options are being considered with the proviso that we will need to trade with and cooperate with what’s left of the EU in the future.”

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will not trigger Article 50 until a UK-wide approach and clear objectives for negotiations have been agreed.

A Government source said “nobody should fool themselves” that leaving would be quick and easy but the Government “will not be providing a running commentary”.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith yesterday piled on the pressure for a quick exit, saying Britain should not necessarily seek to remain a member of the single market.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said it would be in the EU’s interests to keep trading as normal with the UK.

The EU sells £24billion more goods to the UK than it buys from Britain. Britain is also Germany’s biggest car export market.

Mr Duncan Smith said: “I think it would be in the interests of the EU even more than it might be for the UK to maintain a trading relationship.

“We will anyway have access to the market under World Trade Organisation rules, so the question really is, ‘Do we want more preferential arrangements than that?’

“My personal view is we should not seek to remain a member of the customs union nor necessarily remain a full member of the single market, because that would entail putting ourselves yet again under the rule of European law. And that was one of the key areas the British public voted for in the referendum.”

Senior EU figures have made it clear they fear the overnight loss of Britain’s £10billion net contributions to the Brussels budget.

In response they have threatened legal action to try to prevent a quick exit. German MEP Bernd Lange said: “One should not expect the EU would just let such a thing happen.”

THE Government’s overwhelming priority during the coming months must be taking Britain out of the EU. It is reassuring then to hear Iain Duncan Smith confirm that the Prime Minister and those senior ministers tasked with orchestrating Brexit are fully focused on the process.

He also predicted that Article 50 – the formal process for leaving drawn up by Brussels – will be triggered early in the new year. Taking this path out of the EU would certainly be the safest and easiest option but it is far from perfect.

It would mean Britain remaining tied to the EU for a lengthy period of time. Even if Article 50 is triggered in January that would still be more than six months since the referendum was conducted. And we would most likely remain a member during the two-year negotiation period that would follow. That means putting up with more immigration, more membership fees, no right to enforce new trade deals and a continued adherence to Brussels laws.

There is growing support for taking matters into our own hands instead by repealing the British legislation that gives Brussels laws supremacy over our own.

Doing so would instantly return full control to our Parliament. And, as Mr Duncan Smith pointed out, even without a specific deal we would still be able to trade closely with the EU under the rules set out by the World Trade Organisation.

If the process of triggering Article 50 drags on too long calls for Mrs May to follow this course of action instead will only grow louder.