'We're out, deal or no deal!' Brexiteer Bone warns UK ready to leave EU without PAYING
BREXIT supporter Peter Bone has warned the European Union the UK is ready to leave the negotiating table unless Brussels votes to move to phase two of the talks.
Peter Bone: We're leaving the EU whether there's a deal or not
Mr Bone said the UK should walk away from Brexit talks unless EU leaders agree to discuss a future trade deal at the EU Summit scheduled for December 14-15.
The Tory MP said: "The fact is that the British people made their decision. We’re coming out of the European Union and the only question is whether there can be an agreement with the European Union as to how that happens.
"In my view, if there is no agreement at this council that sufficient progress has been made to move forward, we have to make the decision, reluctantly, there will be no deal.
"We’ll come out of the EU and we won’t have a trade deal so we’ll be on WTO rules. And, by the way, we won’t be giving any money to the European Union."
Mr Bone said recent developments in the Brexit process signalled no progress has been made towards trade talks, suggesting the EU should "understand" the future of the negotiations lies in Brussels.
Speaking to BBC News, Mr Bone said: "It doesn’t look at the moment we are making progress on that. We are a day nearer to coming out of the European Union. We’re coming out March 29, 2019, deal or not. So it’s really up to the European Union whether they want to do a deal with us.
"I mean, the Prime Minister has made it quite clear on Northern Ireland that’s not going to be treated any different from the rest of the United Kingdom and the European Union have to understand that. If they can’t understand that I don’t see how we can make any progress."
It comes after Mr Bone offered to personally accompany Prime Minister Theresa May to Brussels in order to sort out Brexit negotiations.
Andrew Bowie slams EU for 'dragging its heels' on Brexit
During PMQs, he said: "When the British people voted to leave the European superstate, they voted to end the free movement of people, they voted to stop sending billions and billions of pounds to the EU each and every year and they voted to make our laws in our own country judged by our own judges.
"Prime Minister, are we on course still to deliver that and if we have a problem, would it help if I came over to Brussels to sort it out?"
Mrs May has been facing growing turmoil after a failed attempt to strike a deal with the European Union on the Irish border – a deal that could have pushed EU leaders to vote in favour of discussing future trade arrangements at the upcoming December EU Summit in Brussels.
But Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster scuppered the arrangement – which would have effectively kept Northern Ireland inside the single market and the customs union – and refused to support any proposal that would see Northern Ireland treated differently than the rest of the United Kingdom during Brexit.