Anthony Browne

A no deal Brexit would be the EU’s fault

I stood next to Jean Claude-Juncker, then president of the European Council and prime minister of Luxembourg, when news flashed up on the TV screens of the astonishing rejection by French voters of the draft European Constitution in their 2005 referendum. He could have responded in so many ways, to try to understand why the voters in traditionally one of Europe’s most Europhile countries emphatically rejected further EU integration. But his immediate response, without drawing breath, was: “They will just have to vote again.” In fact, the French voters weren’t trusted to give the right answer second time around, and so the treaty was pushed through the French parliament instead. Dial forward 13 years, and Juncker is now president of the European Commission, and Britain’s government has been trying to agree a Brexit deal with him in the response to the UK’s own referendum.

It now seems increasingly likely that the UK and EU will not reach an agreement, and that the UK will leave in March 2019 with no deal. The Government has gone into full no-deal planning mode. Business groups are issuing dire warnings. Conservative MPs are already threatening to resign the Tory whip if we “crash out” of the EU.

The blame game has already started: if we do leave the EU without a deal, whose fault would it be? It is almost certain that many people on both sides of the Channel will point fingers at the UK government, and the PM in particular. The chaos and division on the Tory side has certainly given many reasons to do so. The British chattering classes love nothing better than to blame Britain – and even better, the Tories.  

But it takes two sides to reach an agreement.

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Written by
Anthony Browne
Anthony Browne MP is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Environment. He is a former Europe correspondent at the Times and environment editor at the Observer. He is now MP for South Cambridgeshire and a member of the Treasury Select Committee.

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