European Union (Withdrawal) Act

Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Nadine Dorries

Thursday 6th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

I will give way one more time and then make a little progress.

[Ms Nadine Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)]

The Chancellor mentioned no deal, so I wonder whether he can explain what no deal means. My understanding is that the rest of the world trades under World Trade Organisation rules with independent free trade agreements, so there is actually no such thing as no deal, is there? If we do leave—I do not buy the term “crash out”—we will trade on WTO rules, so that does not mean “no deal”, does it?

[Mr Hammond]

Yes, it is no deal. As I will say later in my speech, if we did leave the European Union without a deal, we would actually be the only advanced economy in the world trading with the European Union on pure WTO terms, with no facilitation agreements whatsoever. In my view, that would be a very bad outcome for the United Kingdom.