WATCH Emily Thornberry says Britain is heading for a ‘no deal’ Brexit outcome
3 min read
Britain is likely to crash out of the European Union without a trade deal as a result of Theresa May’s "intransigence" in negotiations, Emily Thornberry has said.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary said the result would pose a “serious threat” to the country as she heaped blame on the UK government for the deadlock in talks.
Her intervention comes after the Prime Minister left last week’s European Council summit without having moved on to the second phase of talks as originally planned.
While the EU said planning for the next stage was underway, both parties have yet to finalise agreement on citizens’ rights, the Irish border and the divorce bill.
It means talks of the UK/EU future trading relationship will not begin until the next Council meeting in December at the earliest.
Ms Thornberry argued that that the Prime Minister had neither the “strength or authority” to break the impasse in negotiations.
"I think what we may be seeing is the Europeans trying to make it clear that it is not their fault that there are these difficulties,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“The intransigence does not come from their side, it comes from Theresa May’s side... because she doesn’t have the strength or authority to control her backbenchers, let alone her cabinet, and I think we are heading for no deal.
"I think that is a serious threat to Britain and it is not in Britain’s interest for that to happen. We will stop it.”
She later hit out at ministers for "threatening" to leave without at a deal while talks were ongoing.
"If you're trying to talk to someone, if you're having a row with your partner, you sit down and try to sort it out, you don’t say ‘you will do as I say, otherwise I will walk out the door’. That doesn’t work and you will not get an agreement from that.
“And from the very start they have been threatening 'no deal', and that is not the way to go into negotiations."
Watch below:
Elsewhere, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said the prospect of leaving without a deal was not a concern - although he stressed that an agreement would be the best outcome.
"I’m not scared of that [leaving on World Trade Organisation terms] but I would prefer to have a deal because it would give greater certainty and almost certainly greater openness of trade… We are absolutely determined to get to that deal."
Mr Fox added that Emmanuel Macron was “completely wrong” to suggest the UK's threat of pulling out without a deal was a bluff.
The French President told a news conference on Friday that “at no moment has Theresa May ever raised a ‘no deal’ as an option".
“If there are noises, bluff, false information by secondary actors or spectators to this discussion, that is … just life in these matters, or in the media. But in no case is it part of the discussions,” he added.
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