Section:GDN 1N PaGe:9 Edition Date:190730 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 21:02 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Tuesday 30 July 2019 The Guardian •
9What the leavers said
‘Can there be tariff s if
they want to sell cake
champagne, cheese?’
Simon Murphy
Frances Perraudin
It was a contentious suggestion
- but the new foreign secretary,
Dominic Raab, was adamant. During
an interview on the BBC’s Today
programme yesterday, he seemed to
say the 2016 referendum result gave
a mandate for a no-deal Brexit.
In a testy exchange, he insisted it
was made “clear” by “those on the
campaign” that “we should strive
for a good deal but if that wasn’t
available that we should go on and
make a success of Brexit”.
When repeatedly challenged
about the claim and asked to provide
proof, he added: “I was questioned
on it by the BBC almost every time I
appeared, and so was Michael Gove.”
The new foreign secretary’s
comments provoked the People’s
Vote campaign to accuse him of
trying to rewrite history.
“The reality is that neither the
offi cial Vote Leave campaign or
any of its prominent spokespeople - including Boris Johnson and
Dominic Raab – promised anything
other than a deal with Europe and
a continuation of free trade,” said a
spokesman.
As the country heads towards
October 31, the Guardian has
analysed the previous stated
positions of some of the key players
in the Leave camp. Most, including
Boris Johnson, focused on the ease
with which the UK would get a free
trade deal.
In April 2016, two months before
the June referendum vote, Raab
told Andrew Neil on the BBC’s
Sunday Politics programme : “We’re
very well placed, and mutual self-
interest suggests we’d cut a very
good deal and it’s certainly not in the
Europeans’ interests to erect trade
barriers.”
During an appearance on the
BBC’s Daily Politics, Raab added :
“The idea that Britain would be
apocalyptically off the cliff edge if
we left the EU is silly.”
However, after the referendum
Raab appeared to have changed his
tune, writing for the Brexit Central
website in October 2016 : “The UK’s
future trading relationship with the
EU can now be predicted within a
clear range of outcomes. Ideally,
we continue trading without tariff s
or other barriers. In the worst-case
scenario, we would face the EU’s
external tariff , which averages
3.6%, rising to 10% on cars and 32%
on wine.” Later in the same piece,
Raab adds: “Even on the worst-case
scenario, Britain will thrive outside
the EU.”
In the following March 2017, Raab
wrote in the Daily Telegraph : “If
there’s no deal within two years, it
won’t be for lack of an ambitious
UK off er. It would represent the
triumph of the EU’s rather inward-
looking politics over the reality of
the outside world. That would be a
shame, but only serve to vindicate
Britain’s decision to leave.”
Invited to provide evidence for
Raab’s comments to the BBC, a
Cabinet Offi ce spokeswoman said:
“This is not for the civil service to
answer.”Boris Johnson told the Treasury
select committee in March 2016 :
“Our relationship with the EU
is already very well developed.
It doesn’t seem to me to be very
hard ... to do a free trade deal very
rapidly indeed.”
Speaking at a Vote Leave event
that same month, Johnson said:
“I put it to you, all those who say
that there would be barriers to
trade with Europe if we were to do
a Brexit, do you seriously believe
that they would put up tariff s
against UK produce of any kind,
when they know how much they
want to sell us their cake, their
champagne, their cheese from
France? It is totally and utterly
absurd.”
In a Daily Telegraph column
published three days after the
referendum result, Johnson said:
“[We] who agreed with this majority
verdict must accept that it was not
entirely overwhelming.”
And he sought to reassure those
who had voted to remain that the
UK would still have access to the
single market.
“EU citizens living in this country
will have their rights fully protected,
and the same goes for British citizens
living in the EU. British people will
still be able to go and work in the
EU; to live; to travel; to study; to
buy homes and to settle down,”
Johnson said.
“The only change – and it will
not come in any great rush – is that
the UK will extricate itself fromthe EU’s extraordinary and opaque
system of legislation.”
Johnson, then foreign secretary,
told the Commons in July 2017:
“There is no plan for no deal because
we are going to get a great deal.”In April 2016 , Michael Gove said
the UK would have the best of both
worlds. “Outside the EU, we would
still benefi t from the free trade zone
which stretches from Iceland to the
Russian border,” he said. “But we
wouldn’t have all the EU regulations
which cost our economy £600m
every week.”Responding to the Offi ce for
National Statistics’ trade fi gures
in March 2016, Matthew Elliott,
chief executive of Vote Leave, said:
“Despite the doom mongering from
the PM, it’s clear the trade deck is
stacked in the UK’s favour. EU trade
is shrinking yet we are held back
from striking deals with emerging
markets as we’ve given up control to
Brussels.
“The real question should be
why our EU neighbours wouldn’t
be clambering over themselves to
secure a free trade deal with their
biggest market.”
After a report by the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) report on the
economic consequences of Brexit
in April 2016, Vote Leave issued a
press release with an accompanying
note that criticised the “fl awed
assumption” that the UK would not
do a free trade deal with the EU after
Brexit.
It read: “The OECD states that:
‘trade with the EU and other
countries would initially revert
to a WTO MFN [World Trade
Organization most-favoured nation]
basis’. This is a highly fl awed
assumption that not even the ‘in’
campaign seriously contemplates
as a realistic possibility. Leading
pro-EU campaigners have admitted
the UK will strike a free trade
agreement if we Vote Leave.”After the referendum, in July
2017, the then international trade
secretary Liam Fox said : “The free
trade agreement that we will have to
do with the European Union should
be one of the easiest in human
history.
“We are already beginning with
zero tariff s, and we are already
beginning at the point of maximal
regulatory equivalence, as it is
called. In other words, our rules and
our laws are exactly the same.”▲ Carrie Symonds outside No 10 on
the day Boris Johnson became PMFlatmates
Symonds moves in to Downing StreetBoris Johnson is moving into
Downing Street with his girlfriend,
Carrie Symonds, after several weeks
of speculation about whether she
would join him.
The new prime minister will
occupy the large fl at above No 11,
despite the chancellor, Sajid Javid,
having a bigger family with four
young children.
There had been speculation that
Symonds might not join Johnson in
Downing Street after she was seenmoving furniture into a house in
south-east London with her mother.
Johnson and his partner have not
been seen together publicly since
they were recorded by a neighbour
in Camberwell having a late-night
row during the leadership contest.
However, Symonds joined staff
and supporters of Johnson outside
No 10 as he entered for the fi rst time
as prime minister last week.
Johnson separated from his
second wife, Marina Wheeler, last
September, after 25 years. He is not
thought to be moving any of his
children into Downing Street
After reports that Johnson had
asked for new furniture to be bought
for him, Johnson’s spokeswoman
said: “There will not be any
additional cost to the taxpayer of
[Symonds] living there.”
Javid is expected to stay in his
family home in west London rather
than move to the two-bedroom fl at
above No 10. Rowena MasonBoris Johnson
Prime minister
‘It doesn’t seem to me
to be very hard ... to do
a free trade deal very
rapidly indeed’Dominic Raab
Foreign secretary
‘We’re very well-placed
and mutual self-interest
sugg ests we’d cut a very
good deal’
Michael Gove
Chancellor of the
duchy of Lancaster
‘We would benefi t from
free trade , but wouldn’t
have EU regulations’Matthew Elliot
Ex-Vote Leave chief
‘Why wouldn’t our EU
neighbours clamber over
themselves to secure a
free trade deal with us?’Liam Fox
Former international
trade secretary
‘The free trade deal with
the EU should be one
of the easiest in history’ Continued from page 1Pound on slide as
alarm over no-deal
Brexit intensifi es
was “frightening”, while the Brit-
ish Chambers of Commerce (BCC)
said industry’s questions about how
to prepare had “gone unanswered”.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) said
guidance from government had been
partial and yet to be road tested.
The pound fell to its lowest point
against the dollar since March 2017,
extending a slide over recent months
as the chance of the UK crashing out of
the EU at the end of October mounts.
The pound was down by a similar
amount against the single currency
at just over €1..
Hitting holidaymakers in the pocket
as they head abroad , the pound has
sunk by more than 10 cents against the
dollar from a peak in excess of $1.33 in
March. Against the euro it has fallen by
more than seven cents from a high of
€1.17 in May.
Analysts said comments from
senior fi gures in Johnson’s cabinet had
rocked the City, including a sugges-
tion from Dominic Raab yesterday that
the UK would be in a better place to
negotiate a good deal with the EU after
no-deal Brexit. The foreign secretary
told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme
that the EU’s “stubborn” behaviour
would be responsible if the UK left
without an agreement.
Petr Krpata of the City bank ING
said: “The market [is] awaking to the
reality of a new UK government, its
rather combative stance on the cur-
rent EU-UK Brexit deal, and its open
remarks on the rising probability of a
no-deal Brexit.”
Joshua Mahony, senior market
analyst at the fi nancial trading plat-
form IG, said: “With two months until
the October deadline, there is reason
to believe that the pound has plenty
more downside to come.”
Over the weekend, several key fi g-
ures in Johnson’s government said the
prime minister was “turbo- charging”preparations for no deal. Sajid Javid,
the chancellor, is expected to increase
spending on no-deal readiness by
about £1bn this week and the gov-
ernment is preparing to spend about
£100m on an information campaign
using broadcast media and billboards.
The BCC, which represents 75,
businesses employing 6 million
people, called on the government to
up the ante on no-deal preparations.
“The 31 October deadline is fast
approaching and businesses are being
told to prepare for no deal, but there
are still signifi cant areas where there
is simply little basis on which to plan,”
said Claire Walker , co-executive direc-
tor of the BCC. “Business communities
want the government to make every
eff ort to avoid no deal, but at the same
time, urgently need it to up the ante on
its planning to enable fi rms to prepare
for all scenarios.”
The FSB urged the government to
“put its money where its mouth is”
by handing £3,000 “Brexit vouchers”
to small fi rms that trade overseas, to
help them pay for advice on navigating
custom and tariff s.
Edwin Morgan, the interim direc-
tor general of the IoD, also called for
fi rms to be issued with Brexit vouch-
ers and criticised the lack of detail from
government. “We have long urged our
members to make any preparations
they can for no deal, but many smaller
fi rms simply haven’t had the time or
money to spend on getting ready for
something that has not been, and still
isn’t, government policy,” he said.Journal Anne McElvoy Page 3 Source: Thomson Reuters2016 2017 2018 2019Yesterday the pound fell to its
lowest point against the dollar
since March 2017
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