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The U.K.’s prime minister Rishi Sunak has quashed a report claiming that his government was pursuing a Swiss-style post-Brexit agreement with the European Union.
Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry conference in Birmingham, England on Monday, Sunak brushed off a report by The Sunday Times which said he was seeking a closer relationship with the EU and had been reportedly looking at an agreement similar to that of Switzerland’s as one example, enraging Euroskeptics in Parliament in the process.
Switzerland sits outside of the EU and enjoys access to the trading bloc’s single market, but in return it pays into the EU budget, emulates EU laws and allows freedom of movement. Its relations with the EU are covered by more than 100 bilateral agreements.
“On trade, let me be unequivocal about this. Under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws,” Sunak told delegates at the conference during a Q&A session.
Senior figures told the Sunday Times that Sunak’s government was considering putting an agreement together similar to Switzerland’s deal but without freedom of movement but has now rejected the idea after a trail of Euroskeptic Conservative MPs warned against the move.
The yield on the 10-year gilt
TMBMKGB-10Y,
was up by 2.8 basis points at 3.266% on Monday morning, while the U.K. pound
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was down 0.75% to $1.1799.
A spokeswoman from the foreign ministry told the Sunday Times that the government is focused on ensuring “Brexit freedoms to create opportunities that drive growth and strengthen our economy.”
“Brexit means we will never again have to accept a relationship with Europe that would see a return to freedom of movement, unnecessary payments to the EU or jeopardize the full benefit of trade deals we are able to strike around the world,” she added.
Euroskeptics voice disapproval
Tony Danker, the CBI director general, told the BBC ahead of Sunak’s Q&A at the conference that he was puzzled with the prospect of a Swiss-style deal.
“I’m a bit puzzled about the whole Swiss thing. It took them about 40 years to get to the Swiss arrangement. Currently, we’re not even implementing Boris’s deal. Let’s implement Boris’s Brexit deal, that still has some growth in it, by the way, that’s all come to a freeze, and let’s forget the discussion about Switzerland for now,” he said
Health minister Steve Barclay told Sky News over the weekend that he didn’t support the idea.
“I don’t recognize this story at all,” he said. “I don’t support that. I want to maximize the opportunities that Brexit offers.”
Nigel Farage, a proponent voice behind the Leave EU campaign, slammed the claims on Twitter, saying this “level of betrayal will never be forgiven.”
But Farage previously said in 2020 – when Britain officially left the EU – that Switzerland was the “source of inspiration” for the U.K. to leave the EU.
