This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/22/brexit-no-divorce-payment-without-trade-deal-says-dominic-raab

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Brexit: no 'divorce bill' payment without trade deal, says Dominic Raab Brussels 'irresponsible' for flagging up risks of no-deal Brexit, says Raab
(about 3 hours later)
The UK could refuse to pay its £39 billion divorce bill to Brussels if it does not get a trade deal, the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, has signalled. The UK’s new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, has accused Brussels of being “irresponsible” for flagging up the risks to EU nationals living in the UK from a no-deal Brexit.
Raab said there had to be “conditionality” under the Article 50 withdrawal mechanism between settling Britain’s exit payment and creating a new relationship with the EU. In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Raab described a document published by the EU last week highlighting the risk of the UK leaving the EU without an agreement as “obviously an attempt to try and ramp up the pressure”.
Meanwhile, he indicated he was still trying to persuade all members of the cabinet that Theresa May’s Chequers agreement was “the best plan to get the best deal”. The former Brexit secretary David Davis has urged the prime minister to “reset” her negotiating strategy. He insisted the UK was preparing for all eventualities, and that more information about the planning would be made public later in the year in a series of “technical notices” being published by the government.
Raab suggested in the Sunday Telegraph that the divorce bill could be used as leverage in the talks with Brussels. “Article 50 requires, as we negotiate the withdrawal agreement, that there’s a future framework for our new relationship going forward, so the two are linked. But he did not deny a report saying that the contingency plans included a proposal to turn a 10-mile stretch of the M26 in Kent into a lorry park.
“You can’t have one side fulfilling its side of the bargain and the other side not, or going slow, or failing to commit on its side. So I think we do need to make sure that there’s some conditionality between the two.” On Thursday, as Raab travelled to Brussels for his first meeting with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, the EU published a 17-page paper for member states urging them to intensify preparations for all eventualities.
Pressed on whether he would put such a provision into legislation, Raab said: “Certainly it needs to go into the arrangements we have at international level with our EU partners. We need to make it clear that the two are linked.” Among other issues, it highlighted what a no-deal Brexit would mean for citizens, saying: “There would be no specific arrangement in place for EU citizens in the UK, or for UK citizens in the EU.”
The comments appeared at odds with Chancellor Philip Hammond, who in December 2017 said of the divorce payment: “I find it inconceivable that we as a nation would be walking away from an obligation that we recognised as an obligation. Asked specifically about this, Raab said: “Well, I think that’s a rather irresponsible thing to be coming from the other side. We ought to be trying to reassure citizens on the continent and also here.”
“That is not a credible scenario. That is not the kind of country we are. Frankly it would not make us a credible partner for future international agreements.” Raab said it was “far-fetched and fanciful” to think that, in the event of a no deal Brexit, the government would not act “swiftly” to secure the legal position of EU nationals in the UK. He also dismissed talks of planes being grounded, saying: “I think we would resolve that issue.”
Raab defended the controversial Chequers plan, insisting he wanted to persuade voters and cabinet colleagues that it is the way forward. The Brexit secretary said: “I want to make sure we can persuade everyone – grassroots, voters, parliamentary party and ministers, including in the cabinet – that we’ve got the best deal and the best plan to get the best deal.” But he refused to deny a recent report in the Financial Times saying a section of the M26 would be requisitioned for use as a lorry park in anticipation of delays at Dover under government plans for a no-deal Brexit.
The Brexit aecretary said critics were mistaken to think May would not walk away without a deal if she had to. “They’re wrong. No bluffing. “Of course, if we have no deal we have to make sure that we are prepared at the border with the knock-on effects that that would have if, on the EU side, they take the worst case scenario approach, which is frankly irrational,” he said when asked about the story.
“The ball is now in the EU’s court, and don’t get me wrong, there will be plenty more negotiations, I’ve made that clear. But if they show us the same level of ambition, energy, pragmatism, this deal gets done in 12 weeks.” “I’m confident we won’t get there. But even if we did, we will have the planning in place ... to deal with that.”
David Davis, who quit as Brexit secretary in protest at the Chequers agreement, told the Sunday Express that the PM needed to “start again” on withdrawal plans. In response to a separate question about a Sun story saying the government was planning to stockpile processed food in case of a no-deal Brexit, Raab at first denied it, before adding: “That kind of selective snippet that makes it into the media, to the extent that the public pay attention to it, I think is unhelpful.”
“We’re going to have to do a reset and come back and look at it all again,” he said. “I think when we get to the autumn, if we are in the situation where we don’t have any degree of agreement, we’re going to have to start again.” Raab said planning for all possible outcomes was “the only responsible thing to do”, adding: “People need to know that actually we are ready, that Britain can thrive whatever happens.”
Davis suggested the government draws up fresh proposals based on an amalgamation of the “best bits” of deals the EU has already struck with other countries such as Canada, South Korea, Switzerland and New Zealand. Although Raab criticised the EU document published last week, he also described Barnier as “a man who wants to do a deal with us”, and said the fact that Barnier was asking questions about the UK’s Brexit white paper instead of “blowing it out of the water” was “a good, positive sign”.
Meanwhile, preparations for no deal needed to accelerate from the current position of “consult and cajole” to “command and control”, he said. “By the end of the summer it should be plain we are making proper preparations for this.” In a separate interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Raab admitted that some cabinet ministers were yet to be persuaded that the white paper represented the best plan for the UK.
The comments came as a poll suggested 16% of voters think May is handling negotiations well, while 34% believe the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson would do a better job. Boris Johnson and David Davis both resigned from cabinet over the plan, which would keep the UK bound by EU regulations on goods, and fellow Brexiters Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, and Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, have still not backed it in public.
And 38% of people would vote for a new party on the right that was committed to Brexit, while 24% said they were ready to support an explicitly far right anti-immigrant, anti-Islam party, according to the YouGov survey for the Sunday Times. The government will try to raise public support for the white paper over the summer, but initial polling has been negative. A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times suggests only 12% of people think the plan will be good for Britain, against 43% who think it will be bad for Britain.
The poll found one in three voters would back a new anti-Brexit centrist party. Conservative party members are particularly hostile. A ConservativeHome poll of party members published on Sunday suggests 67% are opposed to the government’s plan, up from 60% two weeks ago when the plan was unveiled in a No 10 statement after the Chequers cabinet meeting, but before the white paper with the full details had been published.
BrexitBrexit
Dominic RaabDominic Raab
Article 50Article 50
European UnionEuropean Union
Foreign policyForeign policy
Share on FacebookShare on Facebook
Share on TwitterShare on Twitter
Share via EmailShare via Email
Share on LinkedInShare on LinkedIn
Share on PinterestShare on Pinterest
Share on Google+Share on Google+
Share on WhatsAppShare on WhatsApp
Share on MessengerShare on Messenger
Reuse this contentReuse this content