Is a 'hard' Brexit the best deal for the UK?
As British Prime Minister Theresa May fights to save her Brexit deal, former U.K. Parliament Member John Browne said embarking on a “hard Brexit” is suitable.
“It would be better to have a negotiated deal, of course,” he said to FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday. “But the second best and the one looming is a hard exit and that is a great benefit to Britain.”
A "hard Brexit" is generally seen as a British departure from the European Union in which it loses all access to EU markets and the EU customs union; a "soft Brexit" is generally seen as a British departure from the EU in which the U.K. retains some access to EU markets and stays in the customs union but at the price of compromising on immigration policies.
The U.K. voted to the leave the EU in a 2016 referendum, but terms of the separation still remain undecided.
People in favor of Brexit say the agreement, which calls for close trade ties between the U.K. and the bloc, would turn Britain in a vassal state obliged to EU rules it has no say in making.
“Britain would be free to carve trade agreements with America, Canada, Japan, China, which it’s now prevented from doing because all the European Union trade agreements are geared towards to the Franco-German interests and not to Great Britain in which the financial center is the most important contributor to national GDP,” Browne said.
Browne is hoping that a no-confidence vote being urged by prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg promotes leadership change soon.
“She’s upset almost all sides of the House, including Remainers … because they feel they are going to still be within the European Union but with no seat on the board,” he said. “And my hope is that within the next week the 1922 committee, she will be called and it would be a reselection call and it would take about two weeks to get rid of her and replace her with someone else.”
May on Thursday, after a slew of resignations in her own government, vowed to see the Brexit plan through until the bitter end.