WE WON’T BE BULLIED BY EU
Britain’s top Brexit team warns Brussels
BRITAIN will not be bullied by Brussels, key members of Mrs May’s Brexit team warned yesterday.
Boris Johnson told European leaders the UK would not take “punishment beatings” without hitting back.
And David Davis said he would stand up to the EU if it threatened Britain with retaliation over leaving. He
said: “Our civil service can cope with World War Two, they can easily cope with this.”
In a pointed attack on European leaders calling for Britain to be punished, the Brexit Secretary said: “We’re not going to take that.”
His words followed the tough line by Theresa May who told the EU that Britain will walk away from the negotiating table rather than accept a bad deal.
He also dismissed Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, who had claimed that the UK “cannot cherry pick” what it wants when it leaves.
Mr Davis said: “A more important person than Mr Verhofstadt is Donald Tusk, the head of the [European] Council, and he said this is realistic.
Serious
“That was the world that he used – ‘realistic’. It’s quite interesting, it was entirely possible, when you open a negotiation you get a sort of reaction back to push you back a bit.
“We didn’t get that, we got a serious and reflective look at it from Brussels and I think we’re going to see a really good engagement. “Guy is one player of several.” The comments came as Boris Johnson hit out at comments made by French President Francois Hollande. He warned the EU against trying to inflict “punishment beatings” on Britain in the style of a prisoner of war escape film.
The Foreign Secretary, on a visit to India, said: “If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anyone who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I don’t think that’s the way forward. It’s not in the interests of our friends or our partners.”
Meanwhile Mr Davis warned that freedom from Brussels may not be achieved until 2021.
He said he is “very determined’ to agree a divorce deal with Brussels and forge a new trading relationship within the two-year negotiating process set out by Article 50 which triggers Brexit.
But he added: “At the end of two years we will have our deals, what may take a little longer is implementation.
“I don’t know whether it’s customs arrangements or it’s a time for companies to accommodate things or whether it’s border arrangements or some other elements.”
Ukip leader Paul Nuttall last night made it clear that he intends to ensure that ministers live up to their tough words when they start negotiations.
He said: “I say to the EU negotiators now is not the time for empty threats.
“Britain is not bluffing, Britain will not be bullied. Britain is not some sort of small nation on the peripheries of Europe.
“We are the United Kingdom. The fifth largest economy on the planet.
“We have links all over the globe – to the Anglosphere, the Commonwealth, the emerging markets of the Far East.”
AHEAD of his inauguration tomorrow Madame Tussauds in London has unveiled its new waxwork of Donald Trump. Particularly worthy of praise are the poor people put in charge of recreating his bizarre hairstyle. It must have been a challenge but it has ended up looking more lifelike than the real thing. Hats off to them.