Referendum move on nuclear site
CHANCELLOR PHILIP Hammond has risked stoking up a row with Eurosceptic Conservatives by suggesting he hopes any change to Britain’s trade relations with the EU after Brexit will be “very modest”.
Mr Hammond’s comment came ahead of a speech by leading Tory Brexiteer Jacob ReesMogg, in which the new chairman of the European Research Group will urge Ministers not to be “timid and cowering” in their approach to EU withdrawal.
Mr Rees-Mogg will warn that close alignment with the EU after Brexit would prevent “meaningful” trade deals with other countries, leaving Britain a “vassal” of the remaining 27-nation bloc.
In a speech to UK businesses at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Hammond warned that European economies were not currently strong enough to be exposed to “any unnecessary economic, fiscal or financial stability risks”. He said: “It is right to recognise that the process of the UK moving from membership of the EU to a future and different relationship with the EU has the potential to present such risks.”
Mr Hammond was speaking to a lunch hosted in the Swiss ski resort by the CBI, whose director general Carolyn Fairbairn earlier this week called for the UK to remain in a customs union with the EU.
The Chancellor – who is regarded by many Eurosceptics as a Cabinet obstacle to a “clean break” from Brussels – said he welcomed Ms Fairbairn’s speech for its focus on securing “the closest possible future relationship between the EU and the UK, post-Brexit”.
A Downing Street spokesman declined to say whether the Chancellor’s comments were cleared in advance by Number 10 but insisted: “The Cabinet are signed up to the vision the Prime Minister has set out in her speeches.”
Meanwhile, Brexit Secretary David Davis will give a speech in Middlesbrough today on the UK’s ambitions for an implementation period after Brexit.
He is expected to say we will soon be able to sign trade deals with ‘old friends and new allies’, including with emerging nations. A REFERENDUM could be held as the Government launches a fresh search for the location of a £12 billion underground nuclear waste facility.
The last effort was rejected by Cumbria County Council in 2013, but local residents will be given more of a say this time, say Ministers. The offer of a “community fund” while tests go ahead is also being considered.
The Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) will create up to 2,000 jobs and bring in at least £8 billion to the UK economy, according to the Government. The facility would be built at least 200 metres underground, made up of layers of steel, rock and clay to provide protection while some of the waste remains radioactive.
Energy Minister Richard Harrington said: “We owe it to future generations to take action now to find a suitable long-term site for the safe disposal of our radioactive waste.”