A no-deal Brexit would be ‘mistake we would regret’
‘It would be a mistake we would regret for generations, if we had a messy, ugly divorce and would inevitably change British attitudes towards Europe,’ says Jeremy Hunt
LONDON: Crashing out of the EU without a deal would be a “mistake we would regret for generations,” Jeremy Hunt has said.
The foreign secretary said a no-deal Brexit would “inevitably change British attitudes towards Europe,” just a day after Latvia’s foreign minister claimed the scenario stood a 50:50 chance of coming to pass.
Hunt’s comments came as a petition supporting The Independent’s campaign for a Final Say on the Brexit deal passed 615,000 signatures.
He spoke in an interview with ITV News after a meeting with the Dutch foreign minister as part of a three-day tour of northern Europe, but with tensions high over the government’s approach to Brexit, he was later forced to backtrack.
Discussing the risk of no proper negotiated deal he said: “It would be a mistake we would regret for generations, if we had a messy, ugly divorce and would inevitably change British attitudes towards Europe.” Tory Brexiteers have ferociously challenged ministers they accuse of talking down the UK’S prospects in the case of a nodeal withdrawal, which many of them believe would be a positive option.
Anticipating a backlash on Friday morning Hunt, took to Twitter to clarify his comments saying that Britain would “survive” and actually a no deal would be a “big mistake” for Europe.
When asked whether he was presenting the government’s Brexit plan as “take it or leave it,” Hunt answered: “No, but it is a framework on which I believe the ultimate deal will be based and I’ve been to several countries and met seven foreign ministers and am meeting more in the weeks ahead.
“I’m getting a strong sense that not just in Holland but in many of the places I’ve visited that they do want to engage seriously to try and ind a way through to try and get a pragmatic outcome.”
Denmark’s inance minister Kristian Jensen told BBC radio he believed the odds that there would be no deal in Brexit negotiations were 50/50, echoing comments by Latvia’s foreign minister earlier in the week.
Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly said that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed in Brexit talks, so a no-deal Brexit would jeopardise an accord reached, in principle, for a transition phase that would extend close ties to the bloc until December 2020.