Following speculation that the UK government was pursuing a new Swiss-style deal with the EU, prime minister Rishi Sunak has emphatically ruled out the prospect of any new post-Brexit relationship that will see the country align more closely with EU law.
Prior to Sunak’s comments, immigration minister Robert Jenrick had already denied that ministers were seeking a closer relationship with the bloc akin to the deal it has with Switzerland.
Switzerland’s deal with the EU sees the Alpine country align with EU rules in some aspects, such as freedom of movement. It also contributes to the EU budget and enjoys access to the single market despite being a non-member.
A report had emerged in the Sunday Times which suggested that ministers were looking to shake-up the post-Brexit relationship to remove trade barriers. The reported hinted that this could see the UK pursue a similar deal with the EU to that enjoyed by the Swiss.
However, this has now been ruled out by both Jenrick and the PM.
Sunak insisted that the tighter border control that Brexit enabled was one of the biggest benefits of leaving the EU, telling business leaders at the CBI conference in Birmingham that he believed in the Brexit project and what it offered.
“I voted for Brexit; I believe in Brexit. I know that Brexit can deliver, and is already delivering, enormous benefits and opportunities for the country,” Sunak said.
As well as enjoying “proper control” over its borders, the PM highlighted that another advantage was the ability of the UK to strike its own trade deals with “the world's fastest-growing economies” without being bound by EU terms.
The prime minister’s official spokesman separately said it was a “categorical” fact that the existing Brexit deal would not be subject to fundamental changes, and elements such as freedom of movement and having to make “unnecessary” payments to the EU would not return.
The spokesman also said that ministers would not be pursuing any sort of deal with the bloc that “limits the UK's freedom to do trade deals” with other nations.
The initial speculation had been greeted with backlash by Brexiteers within the Conservative party. Former cabinet minister Simon Clarke said that he hoped it wasn’t “something under consideration” and the “question of leaving the European Union” had been “settled…definitively, in 2019.”
Lord Frost, who negotiated the existing Brexit deal for the UK government, said that he hoped that the government “thinks better of these plans, fast” in the aftermath of the report from the Sunday Times.
Image by Simon Walker / HM Treasury, OGL 3, sourced from Wikimedia Commons
