The government has labelled reports that a ‘Swiss-style’ relationship of the UK with the EU is being considered as ‘categorically untrue’.
According to the Sunday Times, the move could take place over the next decade as the Government eyes up a closer relationship with the EU that avoids the current barriers to trade.
Any such shift, only a few years after Boris Johnson secured a deal with the EU after years of back-and-forth negotiations, would likely inflame backbench Tory Brexiteers.
Yet the report today has been rubbished by a government spokesperson, who said the story was ‘categorically untrue’ and added: ‘This Government is focused on using our Brexit freedoms to create opportunities that drive growth and strengthen our economy.
‘Brexit means we will never again have to accept a relationship with Europe that would see a return to freedom of movement, unnecessary payments to the European Union or jeopardise the full benefit of trade deals we are now able to strike around the world.’
Former Brexit secretary Steve Barclay also denied any such plans were in place during a round of broadcast interviews on Sunday morning.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge, Mr Barclay said he did not recognise any such report and said the government was looking to ‘maximise the opportunities’ of leaving the EU.
But despite his pro-Brexit views, Mr Barclay, was forced to concede that there have been ‘difficulties’ with trade since the UK left the EU.
The Sunday Times suggested that – behind closed doors – some in Government have indicated the pursuit of a frictionless trading relationship with the bloc requires moving to a Swiss-style arrangement over the next 10 years.
According to the paper, this would not extend to a return to freedom of movement.
‘We’ve got a Prime Minister who himself supported Brexit. I myself did and was Brexit secretary, and worked very hard to maximise our control of our laws, our borders and our money,’ said Mr Barclay, who is currently serving as Health Secretary in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet.
‘So, it’s absolutely important, particularly in those high-growth sectors, such as financial services, life sciences and the green industries, that we really use the Brexit freedoms we have.
‘So no, I don’t recognise this story at all.’
When asked if he could support a Swiss-style relationship, Mr Barclay said: ‘Well, I didn’t support that. I want to maximise the opportunities that Brexit offers.’
Simon Clarke, the former levelling up secretary, was among those to criticise any suggestion that the UK could pursue a Swiss-style arrangement.
The Tory MP tweeted: ‘I very much hope and believe this isn’t something under consideration. We settled the question of leaving the European Union, definitively, in 2019.’
Lord Frost, the former chief Brexit negotiator, also tweeted that he hoped if the report was correct, ‘the Government thinks better of these plans, fast’.
Switzerland and the EU have a close economic relationship based on a series of bilateral agreements, giving the country direct access to parts of the EU’s internal market including the free movement of people.
The UK is locked in long-running talks with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit arrangement for the region designed to avoid a border on the island of Ireland.
Unionists have opposed the protocol as impeding trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, placing a border in the Irish Sea.
This has resulted in the collapse of the Stormont Assembly, with top civil servants left to run government departments.
However, there have been renewed hopes in recent weeks that a deal can be secured and the relationship improved between the UK and the EU after years of tensions, with a Swiss-style agreement rumoured to be one of the options mooted to solve the protocol dispute.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Sky News that Labour does not want to rejoin the EU single market nor would it seek to adopt a Swiss-style set of arrangements.
He said: ‘We’re not proposing returning to the single market or the customs union, or anything like that.
‘But we do want to negotiate a bespoke deal for the United Kingdom, so that our businesses can export, so that we can get those agreements on agriculture, so we can work together on security issues.’
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