Brexit Negotiations and No Deal Contingency Planning

Vicky Ford Excerpts

Tuesday 4th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

The way we want to resolve the Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland issue for the future and also deal with frictionless trade is through the economic partnership. Now, that does challenge some of the long- standing orthodoxies and dogmatic legalism of the EU —there is no doubt about that and no hiding from it. However, we have to find a way—in fairness the EU is at its best when it is the most innovative—to recognise the specific factors and circumstances around it and look for a win-win solution that caters for those risks while also freeing us up to do the other positive things we want to do, particularly around free trade.

[Vicky Ford (Chelmsford) (Con)]

In my experience of eight years of European negotiations, I often found different sides of the negotiating table rejecting each other’s positions at the beginning but actually finding over talks that they were not that far apart. So may I urge my right hon. Friend to keep talking and especially to find harmony on this issue and an outcome that respects the Good Friday agreement while also keeping the UK united?

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend has a long track record of experience in this area and is absolutely right about negotiations. I am mildly surprised by some of the suggestions that at pushback from the EU we should immediately roll over. That is not what we are going to do; we are going to take a resolute and tenacious approach to these negotiations and work on our plan. Whether it is the Polish Foreign Minister, who says that our proposals are a good basis for discussion, or the Danish Finance Minister, who says they provide realistic proposals for good negotiations, we are confident we can make further progress.