DOWNING Street has played down claims by Scottish Secretary David Mundell that leaving the EU will also mean Britain leaving the single market.
No 10 warned that negotiations on the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU had not even started after Mr Mundell made his comments in the Scottish Parliament.
He is the latest Tory minister to have his comments clarified by officials.
Read more: There will be no special Brexit deal for Scotland, says David Mundell
Appearing before the Holyrood parliament’s Europe Committee, Mr Mundell insisted the UK would still be able to enjoy tariff-free access to EU markets from outside the single market.
“I accept on one level, if we are leaving the EU the essentially we are leaving the single market but access to the single market can, I think, continue in a way that doesn’t involve tariffs or barriers,” he told MSPs.
A No 10 spokesman refused to endorse his remarks, insisting that Theresa May was committed to securing the “best possible deal for Britain” outside the EU.
“Clearly we haven’t started the process of exiting the EU yet. We will be triggering Article 50 at some stage in the first quarter of next year. Clearly we will engage in a process with the EU. Issues like that will form part of the dialogue,” the spokesman said.
Read more: There will be no special Brexit deal for Scotland, says David Mundell
“What is important – as the Prime Minister herself has set out on many occasions – is as we go through the process of negotiation we get the best possible deal for trade in goods and services within Europe and with Europe.”
There have been “useful meetings” between the Scottish and UK governments over Brexit, Mr Mundell said, even though Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said earlier this week talks with the Prime Minister had been “deeply frustrating”.
Read more: There will be no special Brexit deal for Scotland, says David Mundell
Previously when Brexit Secretary David Davis said it was “improbable” Britain could take control of its borders and still remain in the single market, he was slapped down by No 10.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel