U.K. Chancellor Philip Hammond said today a Canada-style free-trade agreement with the European Union was “not on offer” from Brussels, criticizing Boris Johnson’s so-called “super Canada” proposal as unrealistic.
“The problem is it’s not available — it’s not on offer,” Hammond told the BBC Radio 4’s Today program today, ahead of his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. “You have to understand the position of the people you’re negotiating with.”
Hammond claimed the only option Brussels has put on the table would tear the U.K. apart because it includes a hard border to Ireland, adding he was “100 percent” behind Prime Minister Theresa May in saying the government’s Brexit plan is the only viable solution.
“What we need to do is protect our trading relationships with the EU27 members states,” Hammond added. “They are our biggest market place.”
The EU, he also said, “can’t just sit there and say it doesn’t work.”
Hammond also criticized former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson — who has called May’s Brexit proposal “deranged” and called for London to strike a Canada-style free-trade deal with Brussels — for failing to grasp the complexity of Brexit talks.
“Boris Johnson is a big picture man, a big character on the political stage,” Hammond said. “But this is a very detailed and complex negotiation. It doesn’t require big sweeping statements, it requires meticulous attention to the negotiating strategy.”