We WILL leave the single market and customs union: Hammond
PHILIP Hammond yesterday conceded that Britain will leave both the EU single market and customs union.
The Chancellor made the admission as he backed away from challenging Theresa May’s plans for Brexit.
Eurosceptics had been worried that Mr Hammond, who backed Remain, could attempt to keep Britain in the customs union, which would prevent it striking its own trade deals.
Yesterday, he pledged the UK would leave, but raised the prospect of temporary measures being in place for a couple of years that delay a clean break.
Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, he insisted there must be transitional arrangements to avoid a ‘cliff edge’.
He said: ‘What we put in place may not be a single arrangement that endures forever, it may be an arrangement which lasts for a couple of years as a temporary measure before we get to the long- term agreed status quo.
’We’re leaving the EU and because we are leaving the EU, we will be leaving the single market and by the way, we will be leaving the customs union.
‘The question is not whether we are leaving the customs union. The question is what do we put in its place in order to deliver the objectives the Prime Minister set out in her Lancaster House speech of having no hard land border in Ireland and enabling British goods to flow freely backwards and forwards across the border with the European Union?
‘It’s a statement of common sense that if we are going to radically change the way we work together, we need to get there via a slope, not a cliff edge.’
Mr Hammond said he would not agree to a deal that would ‘destroy’ Britain.
‘No deal would be a very, very bad outcome for Britain, but there is a possible worse outcome and that is a deal that is deliberately structured to suck the lifeblood out of our economy over a period of time,’ he argued.
Business chiefs meanwhile have called for a rethink on Brexit. Five lobby groups have written to Business Secretary Greg Clark, calling on him to ‘put the economy first’ as formal negotiations begin.
The British Chambers of Commerce, Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, Institute of Directors and manufacturing organisation EEF are demanding continued access to the single market until a deal is signed.
This would help avoid economic turbulence but could mean Britain has to continue accepting free movement, EU courts and membership fees.
Lord Rose, who was a key figure in the campaign to stay in the EU, said the election was ‘a proxy re-referendum’ which showed the public was not happy with the government’s approach. It has also emerged that senior bankers have met to discuss tactics and push for continued links to the single market.