Brexit outcome will see UK lose relevance

Sir, – The Brexit terms delivered by the EU 27 are not new. These terms are that the UK must abide by all regulations and accept free movement for the two years during the so-called Brexit transition.

They were spelled out in a 15-page progress report agreed between the EU Commission and the UK Government last December.

Paragraph 49 explained that the UK is committed to leaving the single European Market and the customs union, while “avoiding a hard border.” Even if no agreement can be reached, the UK “will maintain full alignment with those rules of the internal market and the customs union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the allisland economy and the protection of the 1998 [Good Friday] Agreement.”

Paragraph 50, insisted on by Northern Ireland’s DUP, states there will be “no new regulatory barriers” between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and that the UK “will continue to ensure the same unfettered access to Northern Ireland’s businesses to the whole of the United Kingdom internal market.”

This is effectively a pledge for a “soft Brexit”, i.e. the UK leaving the single market and customs union, while securing a deal that gives unfettered access to European markets.

Mrs May has essentially agreed that this means accepting EU trade rules, with all that this implies for other aspects of EU legislation.

The Tories are embroiled in factional warfare over Brexit so severe that a leadership challenge is imminent.

I predict the final outcome of the Brexit negotiations will be brutal and unbalanced – Brexit is the disease of the mind of the nasty Tory right.

The outcome will mean nothing will change, other than the UK will have even less relevance than it did before Brexit.

Alan Hinnrichs. 2 Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, with Prime Minister Theresa May at EU headquarters in Brussels.