May: Brexit is on... whatever damage to UK
THERESA May has vowed to push forward with Brexit, even if it harms the UK economy.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that the Government’s own analysis painted a gloomy picture of Britain after leaving the EU.
“It’s important that the Government looks at the analysis that is available,” Mrs May said. “But it’s also important that the Government does what the British people want us to do — to leave the European Union, and that is what we’ll be doing.”
It comes as fresh Tory divisions opened up.
The PM’s Brexit team is reported to be preparing secret plans to strike a customs union deal with the EU.
But Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who is travelling back from China on the same plane as Mrs May, knocked down the idea,
He said: “It is very difficult to see how being in a customs union is compatible with an independent trade policy, because we would be dependent on what the EU negotiated in trading policies and we’d be following behind that.”
A spokesman for Mrs May repeated the Government’s plans for the UK to leave the single market and the customs union, but said she had an “open mind” to negotiations.
“That’s the approach we took in phase one that’s the approach we take in phase two,” he said.
Labour and Tory remainers have tabled an amendment to the Trade Bill that calls for the UK to remain in the customs union.
Pressure is mounting on Mrs May to spell out exactly what the Government wants from the new relationship ahead of a meeting with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier next week, who will start the next round of talks with Brexit Secretary David Davis on Monday.
Mr Barnier said he wanted to discuss the UK’s “orderly withdrawal” at meetings in Brussels.
The British people voted to leave the EU... that is what we will do
THERESA MAY SPEAKING IN FAR EAST YESTERDAY