EU must be ready to send aid to Brexit Britain, says former PM of Finland

The European Union must stand ready to send aid to Britain when it is crippled by food and supplies shortages because of Brexit, the former prime minister of Finland has said.

Alexander Stubb, who unsuccessfully ran to be European Commission president in 2019, said the EU should help a stricken UK even though it was all Britain’s fault.

He said, "If the EU would play its cards right, it would offer assistance to the UK now or later when the supply of basic goods and services takes a turn for the worse.

“This is what friends do, even if the pain has been self-inflicted, stupid and unnecessary.”

Mr Stubb, who led Finland for 11 months and was the country’s finance minister, predicted the only way to save Britain would be for it to renew closer ties with the EU.

The former MEP and vice-president of the European Investment Bank suggested that the offer of help could tempt the UK back into the fold.

Mr Stubb’s comments echo a widely held view in Brussels that the fuel, supply and truck driver shortages that have hit the UK are a direct consequence of the decision to leave the EU and its Single Market.

EU diplomats claim Northern Ireland has not faced similar problems because a Brexit treaty keeps it within the Single Market.

Mr Stubb, who is well known for his predilection for Iron Man endurance contests, said that things were only going to get worse for the UK the longer it stayed away from its former EU allies.

"Sorry, but the situation in the UK is going to go from bad to worse with no respite in sight,” the 53-year-old said.

He rejected Boris Johnson’s insistence that the disruption to petrol and other supplies were part of the growing pains as the UK transitioned to a high wage economy after Brexit.

Mr Stubb said, “This is not a period of adaptation, it is a rather permanent reality and fact linked to voluntary isolation and myths of sovereignty in an interdependent world.”

"The only way out of this mess is the gradual return to cooperation with eventual discussions on new arrangements,” he added.

He suggested that the UK could rejoin the European Economic Area, which includes rule-taking countries such as Norway and Iceland, which are not EU member states.

“That might just be too big of an integration chunk to swallow before say 2030," he said.

Watch: UK economy: Business calls on Boris Johnson to put flesh on bones of post-Brexit vision