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Eurogroup chief: Boris Johnson’s Brexit vision ‘impossible’ Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem throws cold water on Johnson’s idea of trade with EU after UK’s exit.
By ESTHER
KING 11/16/16, 9:39 AM CET Updated 11/16/16, 10:34 AM CET
Britain will not be
able to leave the European Union’s customs union and continue to
trade freely, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem told the
BBC.
His comments come in
response to claims made by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Johnson reportedly
told the Czech newspaper Hospodářské Noviny that he believed the
U.K. could maintain free trade from outside the customs union,
possibly suggesting that the country would remain in the single
market after exiting the EU.
The customs union
allows its members to trade goods without tariffs, but applies duties
to some goods imported from outside the union. Brexit supporters see
this as a disadvantage, and advocate for the U.K. negotiating its own
trade deals.
European leaders
have warned the U.K. that it cannot have access to European markets
after Brexit without also accepting free movement of labor, an issue
that has been a sticking point between London and Brussels.
“[Johnson] is
saying things that are intellectually impossible, politically
unavailable, so I think he’s not offering the British people a fair
view of what is available and what can be achieved in these
negotiations,” Eurogroup leader Dijsselbloem said.
Both the U.K.
economy and the European economy will be worse off post-Brexit,
Dijsselbloem said, calling Brexit a “lose-lose situation.”
“We can do our
best to minimize damages but it’s going to be a step back and that
is what Boris Johnson should start talking about,” he said.
Downing Street said
the government had not yet made a decision on its membership in the
customs union.
Authors:
Esther King
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Theresa
May furious at ‘unsolicited’ Brexit chaos memo
Leaked
memo claimed 30,000 new staff needed to cope with leaving the EU.
By CHARLIE COOPER
AND ALEX SPENCE 11/15/16, 2:50 PM CET Updated 11/16/16, 6:39 AM CET
LONDON — Downing
Street has reacted with anger to claims in a leaked memo that its
plans for Brexit are in chaos because of divisions within the
cabinet.
The memo, produced
for the government by a consultancy firm and reported on the front of
Tuesday’s Times newspaper, claimed that Whitehall was overwhelmed
by the task of Brexit, and could require 30,000 new staff to handle
Britain’s departure from the EU.
Theresa May’s
official spokesperson said Tuesday that “no credence” should be
paid to the memo, which she said was “unsolicited” and “nothing
to do with the government.”
In unusually harsh
language, she criticized the Times and broadcasters, including the
BBC, who gave the memo prominent coverage.
“I struggle to
understand why such an unsolicited memo which has no credence can
make front page news or indeed lead broadcast bulletins in the
morning. There is no basis for it,” the spokesperson said at a
press briefing.
The memo, which is
understood to have been produced by the accountancy firm Deloitte,
had been seen by only “one or a few individuals” in government,
and had not been shown to anyone in Number 10, including the prime
minister, the spokesperson said.
Deloitte was among a
range of consultants asked by David Cameron’s government to assess
the task facing Whitehall following the EU referendum result, the
spokesperson said.
The memo, dated
November 7, states that May is “acquiring a reputation of drawing
in decisions and details to settle matters herself,” criticizing
the prime minister’s approach to Brexit as “unlikely to be
sustainable.”
It also highlights
cabinet splits between Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit
Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox on
one side, and Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg
Clark on the other, warning that divisions are harming preparations
for Brexit.
Deborah Haynes, the
Times’ defense editor, who co-wrote the newspaper article, defended
its reporting on Twitter.
The memo was “seen
and aided by civil servants,” Haynes said in a Tweet Tuesday.
Number 10 should
“stop shooting the messenger and start addressing the challenges”
the government faces in negotiating Britain’s withdrawal from the
EU, she added.
Authors:
Charlie Cooper and
Alex Spence
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