UK's Johnson making 'impossible' promise on Brexit: Dutch minister
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was accused of promising an “intellectually impossible” deal on Brexit by Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
The attack on Johnson came after he said the UK would leave the European Union's customs union in tandem with a free trade deal and controls on immigration.
He made the claim in an interview with Czech newspaper Hospodarske Noviny and also attacked the notion of free movement as a central pillar of EU principles as a “myth”.
“Probably we will need to leave the customs union, but this is a question which will be dealt with in the negotiations,” he said.
“Everybody now has it in their head that every human being has some fundamental God-given right to move wherever they want. It’s not true. That was never the case. That was never a founding principle of the EU. Total myth,” he said.
Dijsselbloem told the BBC Johnson was “offering to the British people options that are really not available. For example, to say we could be inside the internal market but be outside the customs union, this is impossible, it just doesn’t exist”.
“The opposite does exist. We have a customs union with Turkey but Turkey is not part of the internal market.”
“He’s saying things that are intellectually impossible, politically unavailable, so I think he’s not offering the British people a fair view of what is available and what can be achieved in these negotiations.”
“It would be in my country’s interests and in European and British interests if the Brits would stay in the EU but I don’t think it’s going to happen. The next best option is to have as good an agreement as possible but the UK will be outside the single market and there will be some hindrances.”
Leaving the customs union would allow the UK to make independent trade deals with non-EU countries. However, there have been warnings from British officials that it could hit the economy by causing extra border checks.
A leaked cabinet paper revealed by the Guardian in October showed that ministers have been warned that pulling out of the EU customs union could lead to a 4.5% fall in GDP by 2030 and the clogging up of trade through Britain’s ports.
The issue has caused a split among ministers, with Liam Fox, the trade secretary, pushing for the UK to leave because membership of the customs union prevents the negotiation of independent trade deals with non-EU countries, the newspaper said
On the other side, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and his allies have concerns about the impact of leaving on the economy.