MPs: We’ll work across divide to get Brexit deal that promotes growth
said: “Any EU-UK trade agreement must go beyond what is set out in existing trade deals around the world.”
Adam Marshall, of the British Chambers of Commerce, said some UK firms were “activating” contingency plans to move staff and some were postponing investment. “All those big decisions are being affected by the lack of clarity from the Government,” he said. “We need the Prime Minister to take a grip of that.” He said the Cabinet was debating “at 35,000 feet, [while] businesses are at ground level”.
In Parliament, however, senior MPs said they would co-operate across the political divides to vote for a Brexit deal that would promote jobs and growth.
In a key show of unity, 30 MPs staged a debate in the Commons to call for Britain to join the European Free Trade Association (Efta), with several Tories indicating they would vote against Mrs May’s government to secure the prize.
Opening the debate, Conservative extransport minister Stephen Hammond said: “How we leave the EU is the most difficult challenge facing this country in a generation, and it is up to Parliament to decide how we do this. There is a lack of clarity over what type of deal the Government wants with the EU.” He said Efta nations — Norway, Switzerland,
Lichtenstein and Iceland — were free to seek trade deals with other countries and set policies on agriculture, fisheries and home affairs.
He added: “In times of national crisis the British political class have always had the ability to put aside ideology and have sought to reach a national consensus and act in the national interest. It is for this generation’s political class to show we can match our forefathers.” Nicky Morgan, Tory chairwoman of the Treasury committee, said joining Efta or the European Economic Area would “take back control”. Ex-attorney general Dominic Grieve MP said “a form of customs union” was implied by the exit deal Mrs May signed in December. His fellow Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach called for the Cabinet to decide on “evidence rather than an ideology”.
Earlier, Conservative former chancellor Kenneth Clarke told the BBC that he had put down cross-party amendments for a close relationship with the EU after Brexit, saying: “The vast majority [of