Brexit '50-50' if May's deal voted down: Trade Secretary Liam Fox

The chances of the UK leaving the European Union are “50-50’’ if Parliament rejects Prime Minister Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement in January, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said in a Sunday Times interview.

 

“If we were not to vote for that, I’m not sure I would give it much more than 50-50,” the veteran campaigner for Brexit told the newspaper. “For me that would induce a sense that we had betrayed the people that voted in the referendum.”

 

Fox told his fellow lawmakers that it was a “matter of honor” to back May and he’d rather accept an agreement that falls short of the ideal than risk Brexit’s failure.

 

“For me, the worst possible outcome of this process would be no Brexit,” he said in the interview.

 

The vote on the Brexit deal is set for the week of January 14, May has said, without giving a precise date. The premier pulled a vote on the deal scheduled for earlier this month, acknowledging she did not have the support to win approval.

 

May has sought additional reassurances from the EU that might win the support of her own rebellious Conservative Party lawmakers and her allies in Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which provides the votes to give her a majority in the House of Commons.

 

Fox said he would like to see more EU concessions on the so-called Irish backstop, language in the deal meant to avoid the creation of a hard border between Ireland, which remains in the bloc, and Northern Ireland.

 

In an separate interview to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker suggested the UK and EU “start the following day to prepare the future relations” should parliament approve the deal in January.

‘Deeply Mistrust’

“I get the impression that the majority of British members of parliament deeply mistrust May and the EU,” Juncker said in the interview published on Sunday. “People imply that our goal is to keep the UK in the EU by any means. But that’s not our intention. We just want clarity on the future relations. And we respect the result of the referendum.”

 

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has ruled out backing a second referendum on leaving the EU, and said the House of Commons should proceed with the vote on May’s withdrawal deal.