I’D BET MY £3.6BN EU WILL GIVE US TRADE DEAL
TYCOON BACKS BREXIT BRITAIN
TYCOON Peter Hargreaves yesterday insisted he would bet his vast fortune that a no-deal Brexit would force the EU to give us free trade afterwards.
The financier, left, whose personal wealth is thought to be £3.6billion, dismissed the
recent scaremongering over failing to agree a deal with the EU.
Instead, he said that opting for World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, the so-called “no-deal scenario”, would force Germany, France and Italy to protect their economies and come to a freetrade agreement with Britain.
He told Bloomberg TV channel: “I guarantee my entire wealth (£3.6billion) that we would get free trade. No deal would give us free trade with Europe because the three biggest economies in Europe, outside Britain, are huge exporters to the UK.
“That’s Germany, France and Italy. And those three economies would absolutely demand free trade from the EU.”
Mr Hargreaves then delivered an astonishing broadside to the Whitehall machine trying to persuade Theresa May to push for a soft Brexit. He said: “There isn’t one person on our Brexit team that has a clue.
“None of them are brave. None of them have done a deal. None of them know the art of the deal. The amazing thing is they’ve never asked great businessmen. They’ve left it to civil servants. Not one of them has done anything of any worth in their lives.”
Mr Hargreaves said UK negotiators lack representation from Leave supporters, especially after former Brexit secretary David Davis and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson quit.
Mr Hargreaves, co-founder of City analysts Hargreaves Lansdown, is the latest major figure to back a WTO solution. This week the Daily Express published evidence from Professor Patrick Minford, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, that WTO terms will cost the EU £500billion but will boost the British economy by £600billion.
Michael Burrage, a member of Professor Minford’s Economists for Free Trade Group, published evidence which showed economies trading with the EU on WTO terms do three times better than EU member states – and 50 per cent better than countries with deals. Leave Means Leave co-chairman Richard Tice said the intervention by a senior City figure contrasted with lightweight interventions from the Remainer camp, which has been trying to stir up a new Project Fear. “No deal” scare stories included Britain running out of food and diabetics lacking insulin. Mr Tice said: “People should trust one of our most successful entrepreneurs, not Remain civil servants or politicians.” Leading international law expert Professor David Collins said the “Chequers plan” drawn up by controversial civil servant Olly Robbins could be illegal and needs to be ditched.
But speaking in Edinburgh yesterday, Mrs May defended the plan. She said: “We are working to get a good deal.
“We have put forward a proposal that delivers on the Brexit vote that maintains and protects jobs and livelihoods here in the UK, that will be good for all the United Kingdom. That ensures we have that good trading relationship with the EU.”