May urged to walk out if EU won’t talk trade

Brexiteers insist PM be willing to abandon discussions as she faces snub in Brussels

BRITAIN must be prepared to walk away from the EU and stop negotiations if European leaders do not agree to trade talks at a crucial summit this evening, senior figures behind the Leave campaign said last night.

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, four former Cabinet ministers joined MPS, business leaders and academics to insist she “formally declares” that Britain is prepared to conduct trade deals via the World Trade Organisation rather than the EU.

There are fears that the Prime Minister will be humiliated at the key summit of EU leaders in Brussels, with talks already at a deadlock.

Sources in Brussels have told The Daily Telegraph that EU leaders will inform Mrs May this evening that Britain must contribute to the EU budget until 2023, rather than the current arrangement of 2021, before there can be any movement on trade talks.

EU leaders will meet Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, in Brussels today before their audience with the Prime Minister, in another calculated snub to Mrs May.

It also emerged yesterday that the Government may be preparing to suspend parliamentary discussions over a Brexit Bill until next year, following opposition from Labour and dozens of Conservative MPS.

With mounting fury in Westminster at the EU’S behaviour, Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader, and other MPS said it was time for Mrs May to call the EU’S bluff.

They say Mrs May should declare that Britain would leave the EU and trade under World Trade Organisation rules from March 30 2019, arguing that: “No deal on trade is better than a deal which locks the UK into the European regulatory system and takes opportunities off the table.”

The letter goes on: “It has become increasingly clear that the European Commission is deliberately deferring discussions on the UK’S future trading relationship with the EU27 post-brexit.

“The EU is taking this approach because they do not believe that the UK would be prepared to go to WTO rules for our trading relationship with them.

“If at the European Council this week, the EU continues to refuse to discuss the future framework for a trade relationship, we should formally declare that we are assuming that we will be subject to WTO rules from March 30 2019.”

The Prime Minister will address EU leaders at a dinner tonight, where she will renew her pleas to begin talks on the future partnership between Britain and the EU. It will be her first chance to address them since making her Florence speech last month.

Mrs May has made it clear that Britain’s “generous” offer of £20 billion (£18bn) to settle the so-called divorce bill means it is the EU’S turn to give ground, but the council is expected to tell Mrs May she must offer more money to trigger trade talks.

Already facing the cold shoulder from EU leaders, Mrs May might also be served a cold supper after the summit building was evacuated yesterday when noxious fumes filled the kitchen. This may result in dinner, and her address to the leaders, being cut short.

The letter to Mrs May suggests that the EU is holding Britain to ransom be- cause it does not believe the UK is serious about crashing out without a deal.

The signatories, who include Lord Lawson, chancellor of the exchequer for six years until 1989, former Tory Cabinet ministers Peter Lilley, John Redwood and Owen Paterson, and Labour MPS Kate Hoey and Graham Stringer, say that Britain has been “more than patient” with the EU but must now act to end the “highly damaging” uncertainty for businesses and citizens. They say that if the EU

subsequently decided to agree a free trade deal, it would be “a bonus” but in the meantime Britain could make proper preparations for a no-deal outcome. The letter is also signed by business leaders including Tim Martin, chairman of pub chain Wetherspoons, John Longworth, former director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, and the economists Roger Bootle and Prof Patrick Minford.

Mr Duncan Smith said: “She has got to go to Brussels and tell them ‘we have put a lot on the table and you need to move’. This is the moment when she needs to tell them that no deal is a real threat to them.”

Another former Tory minister said: “We’re at the point where we need to make a decision – do we go ahead with negotiations or do we say we’re going to pull out? We haven’t got the luxury of time here.

“The best thing she could do is turn up in Brussels and tell them that we’re going to go. It would be far more effective if she just said ‘we’re off ’.”

A senior government official said Mrs May would use the dinner to urge the other leaders to “focus on the op- portunities and challenges ahead”. The official added that Mrs May believed “the talks are heading in the right direction”.

However, EU diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph there is only a “5050 chance” of any progress being made by December, when the European Council has its final meeting of the year. One EU official said: “The dinner isn’t expected to last very long or be a very relaxed affair. The other leaders aren’t going to be in the mood to listen to Mrs May speak for too long.”