7 September 2020 | UK NEWS
The UK’s Chief Negotiator has said that the UK is not scared of pursuing a no-deal outcome in trade negotiations, saying Britain will not “blink”.
In an interview in the Mail on Sunday, David Frost refused to acquiesce to the EU’s demands, claiming that the UK refuses to become a “client state” of the EU.
Criticising the previous UK negotiating team, Frost said: “We came in after a Government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments, and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously.”
He continued by stressing that this was no longer the case: “So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realise that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously.”
Speaking with regard to the EU’s negotiating position, he said that they “have not accepted that, in key areas of our national life, we want to be able to control our own laws and do things our way and use the freedoms that come after Brexit”.
The negotiations have stalled in recent weeks, with fishing rights, the so-called “level playing field” and the role of the European Court of Justice all holding back negotiations.
Frost continued: “We are not going to be a client state. We are not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws.
“We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things; we are not going to accept provisions that give them control over our money or the way we can organise things here in the UK and that should not be controversial.”
He also said on the future prospects of the UK post-Brexit: “That’s what being an independent country is about, that’s what the British people voted for and that’s what will happen at the end of the year.
“I don’t think that we are scared of this at all. We want to get back the powers to control our borders and that is the most important thing.”
The next round of negotiations are due to start on Tuesday and are due to be the eighth such round.
