Eurosceptics attack Brexit committee ‘propaganda’
EUROSCEPTIC Tory MPS have accused the Brexit select committee of producing “propaganda for Remain” after it published a report recommending free movement continues once the UK leaves the European Union.
Remain-supporting members of the committee said that there should be no “impediment” to the movement of workers from the EU and called for the UK to stay in the European Economic Area (EEA) if a bespoke Brexit deal cannot be struck.
But the six Eurosceptic MPS who sit on the committee opposed the recommendations. Jacob Rees-mogg, a committee member and leading Brexiteer dismissed the report.
“The Remainers put forward a report that seeks to reverse the referendum result,” he said. “It wants to keep effective free movement, it wants to keep us in the EEA. It’s a total stitch-up. The committee just puts forward propaganda from the high priestess of Remain. Select committees only have any credibility when they are unanimous.”
The committee uses the report to set out tests, which it believes should be used to judge any deal agreed between the UK and the EU by October 2018. Hilary Benn, the chairman of the committee, said: “Our tests set a high bar but they are based on the Prime Minister’s vision for our future outside the EU and the statement by the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis MP, that any new deal would be at least as good as what we have now.
“It is vital that UK businesses are able to continue to trade freely and sell services into our largest market, without additional costs or burdens or a hard border in Northern Ireland, and that we maintain close cooperation on defence, security, data and information sharing and consumer safety.”