OUR FANTASTIC FUTURE OUT OF EU
...and we can leave EU without a deal
BRITAIN is heading for a “fantastic” future of prosperity and opportunity outside the EU, David Davis has said today.
In an exclusive interview to mark
two years since the historic EU referendum vote, the leading Cabinet Brexiteer delivers his most upbeat vision yet of what the country can expect from the “big national project” to quit the bloc.
The Brexit Secretary said: “It’s going to be fantastic. We’re going to look back in 10 years’ time and wonder why we were every doubtful about it.”
Rejecting claims that the departure negotiations are faltering, he insists Theresa May can win a “good deal” with Brussels.
And he also warns Remainers still plotting to thwart the referendum result that Theresa May’s victory this week in Parliament for her Brexit Bill makes quitting the EU in March next year “inevitable”.
“The Prime Minister has now got the freedom to negotiate to get a good deal,” Mr Davis said, adding: “This is a big national project, there is nothing more important.”
Mr Davis spoke in his office at No 9 Downing Street a day after the flagship EU (Withdrawal) Bill passed its final stages in the Commons and Lords. The legislation, which cancels the 1972 European Communities Act underpinning the UK’s EU membership, is set to get the Royal Assent on Tuesday.
Mr Davis added: “A lot of Daily Express readers voted to Leave – they would have voted to leave to take back control of our borders, our money and our laws and we’re going to get that, that’s what this negotiation is all about.
“They are also going to get a future where their children and grandchildren are going to have fantastic opportunities that they don’t have now in new businesses we haven’t even thought of in markets all over the world.
“We’re going to be a more global country.
“People, particularly in London, tend to think Brexit is making us more inward. “It’s just the reverse of that.” Mr Davis said Brexit Britain would benefit from English being “the best language in the world for doing commerce, science and medicine and so on”.
He said: “It gives us a fantastic market with one and a half billion English speakers around the world. We’re going to be able to do trade deals with all of the old Commonwealth. It’s a great future.”
Mr Davis was in an ebullient mood after the Government’s victory in the Commons this week.
His decision to set out an optimistic vision in the Daily Express follows concerns among Brexit-backing Cabinet ministers that the Government needs to set out a bolder and more positive case in the negotiations.
Mr Davis insisted the Government could start looking forward to the climax of negotiations now the 260 hours of debate over the Brexit Bill had concluded.
He said: “Now it is all about the future, getting back into the negotiation to get a future partnership on the economy, on security, right across the board – a whole series of treaties which will make real the opportunities we think Brexit will deliver.”
Mr Davis warned Brussels that Britain was “able to leave without a deal”.
He added: “We don’t want to do that, never have. The best option is leaving with a good deal but you’ve got to be able to walk away from the table.
“When you go to buy a house, you don’t walk in and say – I’m going to buy the house, now what’s the price? So why should it be any different in a big negotiation like this?
“We’ve got to have the right to walk away – not that we will – but we’ve got to have that right.”
Mr Davis rejected claims from some backbench Tories that the Government had made inadequate preparations for quitting without a deal.
“There’s lots going on, we haven’t made it public for very simple reasons,” Mr Davis said.
“This is a careful process, it is not
designed to scare the horses to worry people, it is designed to get the work done.
“Work is being done on migration, on health standards, on the EHIC card when people are going on holiday. Work is going on all these things for both the negotiated outcome and if something goes wrong.”
Mr Davis added: “Negotiations are by their nature turbulent. There are pressure points. The other side uses pressure points, they slow things down if they think it will make us a bit more compliant, that is perfectly normal.
“There will be scary times in the course of the negotiations, there always are.
“It’s just important to keep calm and keep in the back of your mind that what is good for us is also good for them.
“A million cars from German companies come to this country every year. They are going to want that to continue. There are very strong forces on both sides to get a good deal.” The EU Exit Secretary also refused to rule out further concessions to Brussels in the negotiations.
He added: “It’s a negotiation. But the important thing is keeping control of our borders, control of our laws, control of our money – those are the things that matter.
“Is what is being suggested consistent with the referendum? Is this what people wanted or not? If the answer is no, we will say no.”
Asked about his own future after Brexit, Davis hinted that it might be time for him to “get out” of frontline politics after the departure is completed.
He added: “One of the things about politics is that everyone says it always ends in humiliation and failure.
“But sometimes if you know when to get out... if she lets me go,” he joked, admitting the Prime Minister might not let him quit.
IN JUNE 2016 British voters were asked a very simple question: do you want to leave the European Union or stay in it? Who would have thought that two years later the public would still be so confused as to the endgame.
It has been an exhausting experience for us and also for David Davis – interviewed in our newspaper today – who has been leading our Brexit negotiations with Brussels.
But in spite of the obstacles put up by the EU team seemingly at every opportunity Mr Davis remains remarkably upbeat about Britain’s future once we have got back our borders and our laws and are in control of our own destiny once again.
“It’s going to be fantastic,” he says. “We’re going to look back in 10 years’ time and wonder why we were ever doubtful about it.”
And certainly once we get a sense of perspective on this historic and hugely important process we will also see that while we have tied ourselves in knots over Brexit (with a different hurdle appearing almost each week) that is in part because we are a parliamentary democracy and we can be proud of that.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has attempted to take advantage of that at every turn but he must understand that when push comes to shove (and it may) Britain will neither be pushed nor shoved.
And if necessary Britain is ready to walk away from the table and still look forward to a prosperous future.