George Osborne has revealed the aim of Britain’s EU renegotiation: to move our relationship back towards a trading partnership. The Chancellor has told the Daily Telegraph he would like to see a paired down relationship focusing on economic matters:
‘I prefer to talk about it as a single market of free trade. It’s free trade with the rules that enable the free trade to be a real success. That’s the way I think we should think about it.
‘Britain has other interests at a European level. For example, the climate change talks that are happening in Paris at the end of this year. The security work that we do with the French.
‘But for Britain, I always felt that the central attraction of European Union membership was the economic one. And that’s why it’s so important to fix the economic aspects of our relationship if we are going to convince people and convince ourselves that it is right for Britain to remain in the EU.’
One consistent theme in Osborne’s interview is the role for France in securing a new deal for Britain.
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