David Davis forced to deny UK will be an EU 'lackey' after Brexit in stand off with Jacob Rees-Mogg
2 min read
David Davis was today forced to deny the UK will be a “lackey” of the EU during the Brexit transition period as he was taken to task by a fellow Conservative MP.
Jacob Rees-Mogg - the new chair of a powerful group of anti-EU figures on the Tory backbenches - told the Brexit Secretary the UK would be a “vassal state” under the terms outlined.
But Mr Davis argued the one difference - that the UK will be able to discuss trade deals with other countries around the world during the transition - was crucial.
The tense exchange took place during a two-hour hearing of the Brexit Select Committee.
Mr Davis told MPs the UK would continue to pay cash to Brussels, remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and be subject to new EU rules during the two-year transition.
He said he was “relaxed” about the conditions of the implementation period and even said the UK could remain in the customs union as long as it was not “sucked in” to staying any longer.
But Mr Mogg - who was this month appointed chair of the European Research Group of Tory MPs - blasted: “Aren’t we just still acting as if we are in the EU; we are bound by the EU; we are lackeys of the EU?
"Can’t we be a bit bolder and implement the referendum result?”
Mr Davis insisted the UK would not be a “vassal state” if the conditions lasted just two years - although he said it would become one if they were indefinite.
But Mr Rees-Mogg shot back: “If not a vassal state, in what sense have we left the European Union?”
The Cabinet minister said the one “massive difference” was that the UK would be able to forge international trade deals, ready to sign once the UK quits the bloc two years later.
“If we extend our membership we will not be in a position to do that,” he told the MPs on the committee.
“That two years is going to be extremely important for inward investments; extremely important for establishing trade arrangements; extremely important in bolstering the economy.”
Elsewhere, Mr Davis said the conditions of the transitional deal will be done and dusted in about eight weeks from now and the transition period itself, from 2019, will be about two years - as suggested by Theresa May.
And he said the “substantive” aspects of the future arrangement for after the transition would be finished by the time the UK quits the EU in March 2019.
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