'Brexit project will be BETRAYED by remaining aligned to EU!' Ex-Brexit minister's WARNING
FORMER BREXIT Minister David Jones said betrayal is in the air if UK remains “too closely aligned” to the EU at the end of the Brexit negotiations.
Jones: UK being closely tied to EU could impact world trade deals
Tory MP David Jones told Channel 4 he sniffs a betrayal of the original Brexit project if the UK remains fully aligned to the EU.
He said: “I think that’s the perception that will be if we remain too closely aligned.
“There is no doubt that if you want to sell into the European market, then we, of course, have to understand that they have regulations that we have to comply with just as much as when we sell to the US we have to comply with American regulations.”
'We don't need to be so closely aligned to the EU', says former Brexit minister David Jones
He added: “But what we don’t need to be is so closely tight to the European Union that we’re effectively no longer a free agent and unable to strike our own path around the world.”
On Friday 8 December Prime Minister Theresa May sealed the first phase of the negotiations with Brussels with a withdrawal bill that sees the possibility of a full alignment with the EU at the end of March 2019.
The bill was criticised by various Brexiteer MPs for its ambiguity on whether the UK will remain or leave the single market and the Customs Union.
LBC caller calls Labour 'treacherous demons' over Brexit
We don’t need to be so closely tight to the European Union
On Wednesday 13 December the PM suffered her first parliamentary defeat when 11 Tory MPs joined the opposition in favour of an amendment to the withdrawal bill that will give Parliament a final say on the Brexit deal.
On Monday EU Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier announced he was not open to a free trade agreement including financial services.
He said: “There is no place for financial services. There is not a single trade agreement that is open to financial services. It does not exist."
He described the position as a result of "the red lines that the British have chosen themselves”.
He added: "In leaving the single market, they lose the financial services passport."
Theresa May confirmed on Thursday she will seek to leave both the single market and the Customs Union after the two years transition period post March 2019.