BRITAIN READY TO QUIT EU EXIT TALKS
Walk-out threat if Brussels won’t back down
BRITAIN may “walk away” from Brexit talks over Brussels’ refusal to back down on the rule of the European Court of Justice, a senior minister warns.
The leading member of the Government disclosed to the Daily Express there was “a very good chance” the UK would
baulk at the European Commission’s stubborn stance.
The minister described the blunt demand that Britain continues to submit to the European court over citizen rights, trade, nuclear cooperation and other areas after Brexit as “a very, very big problem indeed”.
The warning came after the Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said last week he could “see no other way” to agree on citizens’ rights apart from Britain accepting the court’s rulings.
The uncompromising attitude came at the end of the second round of Brexit talks in Brussels. Referring to the EU, the minister warned that “if they don’t budge on that issue then we will have to walk away”. And
with contingency plans being worked up by all Government departments, the minister said “there is a very good chance we could walk away” from the negotiations.
The minister said the only thing that made a complete breakdown in talks unlikely was that the EU was “desperate for a deal” and would have to compromise at some point.
The next round of Brexit talks will take place in August, with citizens' rights and EU demands for an exit fee still the main items.
The discussions are set to broaden out to trade and other areas of future cooperation in October if enough progress has been made.
At the end of the last talks the UK's Brexit secretary David Davis said “good progress” had been achieved on a number of areas.
But his Euro counterpart Mr Barnier repeated his demand that the European court continues to have jurisdiction in Britain.
The “walk” warning by a top minister comes after Mr Davis re-stated that UK courts should decide on EU citizens living here after Brexit.
On a trip to the Czech Republic he made it clear there was no room for compromise on the issue. He said: “We are intent that this should be put in an act of parliament enforced by British courts and most importantly backed up by a treaty.
“When we sign a deal, let's say with the United States, we don't give the United States Supreme Court the right to enforce that.”
The tough line comes amid growing evidence that no deal would hurt the EU far more than the UK.
Leave Means Leave, which represents more than 50 pro-Brexit Tory MPs, has carried out work which showed that walking away from talks with no agreement is still better than the current EU membership.
A paper written for the organisation by John Longworth, ex-director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, showed that British GDP would be boosted by £150billion annually for 12 years with no deal by scrapping EU red tape and ending tariffs with the rest of the world.
And the thinktank Civitas showed Britain would make at least £8billion profit from tariffs with the EU under World Trade Organisation rules.
Richard Tice, co-chairman of Leave Means Leave, insisted that Theresa May's pledge to make ending the European court's rule over Britain a red line was essential to ensure Britain gets its independence.
He said: “The Government is right to set out red lines in the negotiations and ensuring Britain is no longer dictated to by a foreign court must be one of them.
“No deal is much better than a bad deal. If the EU continues to act in such an unreasonable manner, Britain must be prepared to walk away from the negotiating table.” Meanwhile a House of Lords committee has conceded that Britain could continue with the European Arrest Warrant arrangements even without agreeing to the European court role.
Since its introduction, the UK has used the Warrant to extradite over 1,000 individuals including several high-profile criminals.
Remainers had claimed the legal agreements governing it could not continue unless Britain submitted to the European court. However, the Lords' study has shown that bilateral agreements, such as the ones being put in place with Norway and Iceland, could be an alternative.
Last night Chancellor Philip Hammond said he hoped talks on transition arrangements, including the Warrant, can begin in the autumn.
He said: “We hope to be able to deliver agreement about an interim arrangement as early as possible.”