Davis: EU more to lose from hard Brexit

Former Brexit “bulldog” David Davis claims the EU is making a “massive miscalculation” if it thinks Prime Minister Theresa May is not ready to walk away from talks in Brussels without a deal.

Davis, who spent months negotiating with the European Commission’s Michel Barnier before resigning over Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, said member states had more to lose from a failure to reach an agreement than the UK.

“This has great scope for being a massive miscalculation on the part of the EU that could end up with no deal by accident,” Davis told the Daily Telegraph. “It’s certainly not the intention of the EU to have a no-deal Brexit but they are misjudging us at the moment.

“The UK parliament does not want no deal but it’s certainly not going to be pushed around by the European Parliament.

His comments came as the pound fell to an 11-month low after pro-Brexit trade minister Liam Fox warned that Britain could leave the EU without a trade deal.

Davis told the paper: “I’ve always thought that no deal is better than a bad deal and while there will be border issues and so on… it would give us more freedom.

“I’m still of the view that we have got two things on our side – we have got our own currency and we are masters of our own destiny in a way that EU member countries are not.

“This is a negotiation and it will go to the edge, but we must not panic about this. They have got lots to lose too, and specific countries and specific sectors have got large amounts to lose. As we get closer to the brink, there will be internal pressure within the EU.”

Sterling fell half a cent to US$1.2938, its lowest since September 5, 2017. It also fell 0.2 per cent against the euro.

Fox put the odds of the UK leaving without a deal over its future relationship at “60-40”.

Last year, he said agreeing to a trade deal with Brussels would be “one of the easiest in human history”.

Commerzbank currency specialist Ulrich Leuchtmann said: “The voices forecasting a hard Brexit are becoming increasingly shrill. The FX market is slowly beginning to work out that these people might successfully torpedo a constructive solution.

“I consider the Brexiteers’ promise that the UK ‘would enjoy unimaginable wealth’ outside the EU to be nonsense.”

A People’s Vote could end the Brexit crisis. Picture credit: Eurasia Times