Former Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe insisted Boris Johnson’s Government needed to seriously plan for a no deal Brexit. While speaking with Jonathan Saxty on Brexit Watch, Ms Widdecombe claimed a World Trade Organisation Brexit was looking likely and the Government needed to stop putting off preparation for it. She predicted the EU would never give the UK a satisfactory Brexit trade deal and Britain needed to prepare for this eventuality.
Ms Widdecombe said: “In your introduction, you said it is looking likely that there won’t be a trade deal by the end of the year.
“If that is the case, it is time that Boris Johnson’s Government actually got a grip of the situation now.
“Boris said, with wisdom, at the beginning of the year if we haven’t got a recognised shape of a trade deal by June we are going to have to withdraw.”
Ms Widdecombe went on to criticise Boris Johnson’s Brexit team and their lack of clarity on the progress being made.
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She said: “Now he Boris is saying, with the usual lack of resolution that has been exhibited by this Government, he is saying we will wait till October.
“We are getting to a point where British business needs an answer.”
The former Brexit Party MEP added it was important to prepare for a no deal scenario regardless of the success of talks.
She said: “You plan for WTO terms, you don’t just plan for it in theory.
She insisted the agreed Withdrawal Agreement could be open to interpretation by the EU and subsequently result in years of squabbling over the details.
Ms Widdecombe said: “You can always argue about the interpretation.
“What I fear is that that’s exactly the situation we’ll be in.
“There’ll be an awful lot of wrangling about the interpretations which could go on for years and years.
“Whereas what we should have is just a completely clean break.”
