THERESA May denied the country was heading for a hard Brexit yesterday, telling the Commons there was “no suggestion of that whatsoever”.

The Prime Minister was reporting back to MPs on the weekend’s EU council summit when she said it was wrong to think of leaving Europe as a “binary choice” between hard or soft Brexit, or that it was either free trade or free movement of people.

“That is not the case. We are going to be ambitious in what we hope to get for the UK – a good trade deal as well as control on immigration,” May said.

Her meetings over the weekend had not gone well, with European leaders less interested in Brexit and more concerned with a trade deal with Canada and the Syrian conflict.

That trade deal with Canada, CETA, was rejected when the staunchly socialist Walloons of Belgium’s Wallonia region, kiboshed the proposals that have been seven years in the making. They want stronger safeguards on labour, environmental and consumer standards.

Critics of Brexit have suggested if the EU can’t pass this deal, then there is little hope of successful negotiations for Britain.

May, however, rejected that: “To those who suggest that these difficulties have a bearing on our own future negotiations, I would remind them that we are not seeking to replicate any existing model that any other country has in relation to its trade with the European Union. We will be developing our own British model – a new relationship for the UK with the EU – to be there for when we’re outside the EU.

She said she had told the EU that Britain wanted a “mature, co-operative relationship that close friends and allies enjoy

“A deal that will give British companies the maximum freedom to trade with and operate in the European market – and allow European businesses to do the same here. A deal that will deliver the deepest possible co-operation to ensure our national security and the security of our allies.

“A deal that is in Britain’s interests – and the interests of all our European partners. But it will also be a deal that means we are a fully independent, sovereign nation – able to do what sovereign nations do, which means we will, for example, be free to decide for ourselves how we control immigration.”

The SNP’s leader in Westminster asked the Prime Minister to specifically say what she had said to the other European leaders about Scotland.

“She cannot pretend to take the interests and concerns of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland seriously. Either she will, or she won’t. If she won’t, Scotland is right to hold another independence referendum,” he argued.

May, declined to say if she had mentioned Scotland during the summit, but claimed she was taking it seriously – which was what the joint ministerial meeting was about this morning.


Anber Rudd says dismantling ‘Jungle’ camp is in our interests