Brexiteers back UK-EU free trade agreement plan

The IEA blueprint was endorsed by top Conservative Brexiteers, who insisted a comprehensive FTA was deliverable in Brussels and in the House of Commons.

Representational Image for Brexit (File | Reuters)

LONDON: Leading Brexit campaigners on Monday urged Prime Minister Theresa May to change course and pursue a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU after her preferred strategy was snubbed by its leaders last week.

A report by the free-market Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) think-tank said there was nothing to gain from Brexit in May's current so-called Chequers proposal, which would keep Britain very close with the European Union on trade.

The IEA blueprint was endorsed by top Conservative Brexiteers, who insisted a comprehensive FTA was deliverable in Brussels and in the House of Commons.

"If we continue on the present course, Brexit will be a small damage limitation exercise which will weaken the UK and be largely unnoticed by the rest of the world," IEA co-author Shanker Singham told the launch in London.

He said the prize of a more prosperous future for Britain came only from it having an independent trade and regulation policy.

"Without that, there are no gains from Brexit," he said.

The IEA proposal would see full reciprocal market access, no tariffs in goods including agriculture and maximum mutual recognition of regulatory standards.

The plan was backed by David Davis, who resigned as Britain's Brexit minister in July over the Chequers plan and Jacob Rees-Mogg, head of the influential pro-Brexit European Research Group of MPs.

"The great virtue of this plan is that it is deliverable," Rees-Mogg said at the launch.

British lawmakers David Davis, left, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, right, at the launch of the Institute of Economic Affairs' Brexit research paper, in central London, Monday Sept. 24, 2018. The IEA unveils its own projected framework for post Brexit trade relationships between the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the rest of the world. (Photo | AP)

"If this got to the House of Commons, it would be passed."

Davis said the negotiations were stuck in a cul-de-sac, needed resetting and an FTA was the way out.

But May's spokesman ruled out moving towards an FTA, saying it could not prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland -- one of the main sticking points in negotiations with Brussels

"The FTA would only apply to the Great Britain-EU relationship, with Northern Ireland effectively remaining in parts of the single market and customs union," he said.

"The PM has repeatedly set out that we must protect the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom as a whole."