Yahoo News Brexit news – live: EU ‘irreplaceable’ trade partner, PM warned after admitting no-deal ‘most likely’
A member of the House of Lords has warned Boris Johnson over the consequences of a no-deal Brexit on the services industry, saying that “the EU is frankly irreplaceable” in terms of the sector’s trade.
“Services are 80 per cent of our GDP and our services trade with Europe makes up 51 per cent of our services exports,” Nicholas Le Poer Trench said on Tuesday. “As it stands, Europe is a hugely important market for services. The most important.”
The Earl of Calcarty added that “because of the significance of geography to the service industries”, the EU “is frankly [a market] that is irreplaceable”.
It came as No 10 revealed that Mr Johnson had repeated to his top ministers that failure to secure a trade deal with the EU was “the most likely outcome” of ongoing negotiations. During an update for his cabinet team, the prime minister “re-emphasised the desire to reach a free trade agreement, but not at any cost, and reiterated any agreement must respect the independence and sovereignty of the UK”, his spokesperson said today.
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