Michel Barnier: UK will ‘face consequences’ of no-deal Brexit
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has warned that the UK will have to “face the consequences” if it ends up leaving without a deal.
Michel Barnier told the BBC that Theresa May’s deal, which was rejected three times by parliament, was the only way for Britain to exit the EU in “an orderly manner”.
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Publically the Prime Minister had insisted that no deal is better than a bad deal, however, Barnier said that May had “never” told him she might decide to pull the UK out without a deal.
“I think that the UK side, which is well informed and competent and knows the way we work on the EU side, knew from the very beginning that we’ve never been impressed by such a threat,” he told the broadcaster in his first UK television interview.
“It’s not useful to use it.”
In another interview with the BBC the EU Commission’s first vice-president Frans Timmermans said it was “shocking” how unprepared the UK negotiating team was when it arrived for Brexit talks in 2017.
Both candidates in the race to be Conservative Party leader and the next Prime Minister have so far refused to rule out a no deal Brexit.
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Boris Johnson, who is the current frontrunner, has committed to leaving the EU with or without a deal by the latest deadline on 31 October.
It was reported last month that Johnson had devised an emergency budget featuring heavy tax cuts, an overhaul of stamp duty and a ban on new regulations in the event of no deal.
Main image credit: Getty