New Partnership with the EU

Chuka Umunna Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

The two policies, the industrial policy and the negotiating policy with the European Union, fit together hand in glove. My hon. Friend is quite right. We have paid an enormous amount of attention to business, finance, manufacturing, aviation, energy and so on—every single sector; 51 different sectors—to get the best possible deal that suits all of them. We will continue to do so.

[Mr Chuka Umunna (Streatham) (Lab)]

Trading with the EU under WTO rules would be vastly inferior to our current arrangements, with 10% tariffs on cars, 13% tariffs on clothes and up to 40% tariffs on the agricultural produce the hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins) was talking about. For the sake of clarity, will the Secretary of State be absolutely clear: does the Prime Minister’s commitment to an interim implementation arrangement amount to the Government ruling out leaving the EU with no deal at all, and amount to the Government ruling out ending up trading under WTO rules, because that would be very, very damaging for jobs and businesses in this country?

[Mr Davis]

What the Prime Minister said in terms is that a bad deal is worse than no deal for a variety of reasons, one of which is that if you walk into a negotiation with no other option you will not do very well.