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Express: ‘Complete MADNESS’ Brexiteer blasts Remainer for calling single market ‘jewel in UK crown’

Date: 09 01 2017

‘Complete MADNESS’ Brexiteer blasts Remainer for calling single market ‘jewel in UK crown’

A LEADING Leave campaigner ripped into a pro-EU rival for calling the single market “the jewel in the British crown”.

Co-chairman of Leave Means Leave Richard Tice hit out at Open Britain chairman Roland Rudd and said the trade bloc was the root cause of “wage suppression” in the UK.

But Mr Rudd argued that leaving the single market – the expected outcome of a ‘hard’ Brexit – would be “complete madness”.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Rudd, brother of Home Secretary Amber Rudd, said: “What type of arrangement we have is completely up for grabs.

“To leave the single market would be complete madness – no one in the economic field or business field would agree with Richard.”

However, the Brexit supporter interrupted and suggested that remaining members of the single market would be to defy the will of the people.

“The Prime Minister of the time David Cameron and George Osborne both said [and made it] absolutely crystal clear during the campaign that if we voted to leave we would leave the single market,” he said.

Mr Rudd fired back, accusing businessman Arron Banks, who co-founded Leave.EU with Mr Tice, of saying the UK would remain in the single market.

He said: “There were plenty of people on the Leave side, including your friend Arron Banks, who said we would stay in the single market – oh they did!”

However, Mr Tice dismissed the comments and advocated trading under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

The property developer said: “Every country in the world apart from North Korea has access. You operate under the normal convention, which is World Trade Organisation rules.

“That would be perfectly fine, it seems to work very well for the United States, which has a bigger surplus in services with the than we do.

“If it works well for them, it can work well for us.”

The single market campaigner called the idea a “very poor alternative” citing tariffs on “most of our goods”.

The clash comes after Mr Tice said leaving the single market was vital in controlling .

“The British people made it crystal clear in the referendum that immigration was the key issue and the Prime Minister understands that and she wants to be able to retain control of our borders, quite rightly, and you can’t do that if you are a member of the single market,” he said.

But the Open Britain chairman disagreed and blasted: “Immigration was not on the ballot paper.”

January 9th, 2017: Express