Davis predicts ‘terror’ will force UK into deal

DAVID Davis has predicted that Theresa May will get a deal with the EU but it is almost certain to be rejected by MPs at the first attempt.

He warned that any proposal based on the Prime Minister’s Chequers blueprint, or one that keeps the UK in the Customs Union, would be blocked by the Commons.

Instead he suggested it was perhaps time to revert to the EU’s suggestion of a free trade deal similar to that enjoyed by Canada.

Mr Davis, who quit the Cabinet in July over the Chequers plan reiterated his predictions in a statement on Twitter yesterday.

Revealing his opinion on the outcome of talks with Brussels, he guessed Britain would in fact get a deal if only because of the “irrational fear” of a no deal divorce.

“It may take a few passes, there maybe a deal passes in Brussels and fails in Westminster,” he told a panel discussion organised by the Institute for Economic Affairs in London on Tuesday night.

“Terror will win, the irrational fear of no deal will win and there will be a deal,” he said.

He also predicted that the Brussels negotiations were likely to overrun the deadline set for agreeing a draft deal in time for an EU summit in mid-December.

“The EU has a constitutional reflex built into it and that is it never, ever agrees a deal early,” he said. “It was always going to be like this. And the reason for that from our point of view is the pressure only comes on at the end.” Mr Davis also accused the European Commission, led by president Jean-Claude Juncker, of continuing to try to “punish” the UK for leaving the EU.

“They now deny the punishment language but they still continue the punishment tactics,” he said.