No-Deal Brexit Won't Cause Collapse in Europe or in UK - Tory Party Member

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to hold talks with Labour Party chief Jeremy Corbyn to try and save Brexit. This comes after MPs again failed to agree on proposals for the next steps in the Brexit process. On Monday, lawmakers voted on four alternatives to the prime minister's withdrawal deal, but none gained a majority.
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According to the results of the vote, leaving the EU while maintaining membership in the customs union is the most popular scenario. The UK is due to leave the EU on 12 April, but could yet seek an extension.

The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, meanwhile said he now sees three scenarios moving forward: the PM's deal passing in a further so-called "meaningful vote", the UK requesting an extension to Brexit, or the UK leaving the EU without a deal. Mr Barnier added that any extension carried "significant risks for the EU" and that a "strong justification would be needed" before the EU would agree.

Sputnik has discussed Britain's withdrawal from the European Union with James Marlow, a member of the UK's Conservative Party.

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Sputnik: The UK was due to leave the EU in just 11 days time, at the same time MPs have failed again to agree on an alternative Brexit plan. How likely is it that the UK will leave the EU with no deal?

James Marlow: Well, if I was a betting man I would not put money on that particular option because at the moment it is still 50-50. Clearly, the prime minister must have an idea in her mind as to what now her options are, but she's not telling anyone; perhaps, maybe her husband, maybe one or two people close to her.

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At this point, the options are very much limited. It's either leaving without a deal, and what that means is, and let's just be clear, this is not everything is going to collapse in Europe or everything is going to collapse in the UK, it's what we call a managed deal.

So we've already been told by the CEO of Calais ports in France that if Britain was to leave without a specific deal with the EU, the ports will still be open, traffic will still be coming in and out, the big trucks will still be coming in and out, planes will still be taking off from Europe and landing in the UK.

And in the UK planes will be taking off and landing in the EU. Now this was something that we were told would not happen, but we've already got confirmation that this will happen. So I don't think it's really such a big scary story if we do leave with what's known as a managed deal. And the answer is at this point we just don't know.

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Sputnik: If the UK does leave with a no-deal what could be the advantages?

James Marlow: One of the advantages, and I'm somebody who campaigned to leave the EU, not because I don't like the EU countries. I think Europe is a wonderful place, it's got so much history, it's got culture, it's got languages, it's got beautiful, beautiful holiday resorts. I love travelling into Europe and I was regularly there, working and speaking in different countries.

The problem that people like myself had was that Brussels was the supreme law of Britain and the rest of Europe. British judges confirmed this in the 90s after Britain signed the Maastricht Treaty, which basically was on the road to make a United States of Europe. And it is my belief that a number of people across Europe, I'm not talking about the politicians, but across Europe, people do not want to suddenly lose their heritage, their history, their background.

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They've got a specific culture that they can see is fading away, and the people don't want this, but the politicians want this because they feel that this United States of Europe with Brussels in control, and by the way the Parliament is not just in Brussels it is also in Strasbourg, and we spend a great deal of money because hearings have to also be heard in Strasbourg Parliament.

So once a week all the files are collected and they're put on trains and are transported over to Strasbourg just because the Parliament can sit in France and then goes back the following week to Belgium. It's the craziest thing where so much money is wasted.

So, on the contrary, the advantage of leaving the EU is that Britain then has the power to pass laws for its own people and it's not under the jurisdiction of the European court of justice; because up to now laws are passed in this country, it can go to the Supreme Court, the House of Lords, they can make a final decision, but then the European Court of Justice can overrule that decision in Great Britain, and that's unfair.

So the advantages would be to forge trade deals with other countries around the world. Namely, Commonwealth countries, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the United States, Canada, many African countries; they all express their wish to make a free trade deal with Great Britain if they were to come out of the EU. Of course, we still want a trade deal with Europe but if we can't get that then we continue with the trade deals with the rest of the world and that's our advantage.

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Sputnik: The Irish prime minister has said that Ireland has prepared intensively for a no deal scenario and the EU has repeatedly said that they're ready for a no-deal. What does this actually mean for Ireland and for the EU to be prepared for a no-deal?

James Marlow: That the EU is saying is that it is prepared for a no-deal option. France has also said that it has spent millions and millions in preparations for a no-deal option and we believe them.

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Mrs May has always said that no deal is better than a bad deal, she said that so many times but clearly she didn't believe that because if it was no deal rather than her deal then we would be leaving without a deal. But, of course, you can also argue that she doesn't have the support in her cabinet or in her Conservative Party, or in the rest of the House of Commons. But Ireland was the main sticking point. Northern Ireland as you know is part of Great Britain, and the reason why it's part of Great Britain is because the Northern Ireland people can't constantly vote to wish to remain within the UK, within Great Britain.

So this is why Northern Ireland is part of the UK, and I, as a unionist, am somebody who is very supportive of this; listen to what the Northern Ireland people say, and they are represented by a political party which has 10 seats, it's called the Democratic Unionist Party, also known as the DUP. And they've made it very clear that if Britain was to leave without a deal that they would not put up a border between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

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The Irish have made it clear that they would not erect a border between Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the Europeans have also said that they would not put up a border. So this is the main sticking point as to whether there will be a border if I recall it's 322 miles across Southern Ireland to Northern Ireland. So it's a great distance.

Views and opinions, expressed in the article are those of James Marlow and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

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