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Soft Brexit? Hard Lines…

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

By: Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Policy Leader

Tuesday 17 January 2017

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Today, Theresa May set out her overarching vision for Britain as it leaves the European Union.

After receiving criticism for a number of general statements about her negotiation strategy, the Prime Minister set out a ‘truly global vision’ of a British future of working outside of Europe.

She also focused on domestic politics as an important part of these plans, with a need to ‘go further to reform our schools to ensure every child has the knowledge and the skills they need to thrive in post-Brexit Britain’, an industrial strategy and the preservation of the ‘precious union’ of the United Kingdom (itself a jibe at the Scottish National Party?) as some of her priorities.

She also set out her vision for a new deal with Europe, beyond those already agreed with other states such as Norway or Iceland. This would involve leaving the ‘single market’, the European Economic Area and the European free trade agreement. Britain would also have full control of immigration after Brexit. This is very much the ‘Hard Brexit’ favoured by the Eurosceptics of her party, and will require new international trade models and deals to be created with former EU partner states.

May also confirmed that the UK Parliament would vote on the final Brexit deal, and that any attempt by the EU to make life difficult for Britain leaving the Union would lead to Britain walking away - ‘no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal’.

This paints an uncertain picture for Britain’s future, and far from creating clarity it shows that we are entering uncharted waters.

What is clear is that there is a difficult process of negotiation ahead of us if the government is to ensure that British employers can remain competitive post-Brexit.

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