U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned today that continued indecision around Britain’s exit from the EU would be “highly damaging” to the country’s standing around the world.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today program from Japan, where he is on an official trip, Hunt urged MPs to resolve their differences and agree on a deal, saying the U.K.’s trading partners just want Britain to make up its mind on Brexit and get on with it.
He said Japan, and other countries, “are very, very keen to protect their trading relationship with the U.K., and the point that I’m impressing on Japanese people I meet is our absolute determination to resolve this quickly.
Hunt told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in a meeting at the leader’s residence in Tokyo: “We recognise that Japan has many investments employing hundreds of thousands of people in the U.K. We want strong cooperation to continue.”
The British foreign secretary said he had discussed Brexit with Abe, and with officials at automaker Toyota, “but we Hunt and Abe also spoke for much longer about … global security, defending the Western way of life — things where Britain and Japan have an enormous amount in common.”
“The Japanese and other countries … want us to make up our minds as to what kind of Brexit we want to have,” he said.
Hunt noted that ongoing talks between the Conservative British government and the opposition Labour Party to try to break the Brexit impasse “are detailed and more constructive than people had been expecting.