Britain must avoid a ‘chaotic exit’ when it leaves the EU says Labour as aprty accuses ministers of putting ‘ideology over the national interest’ by failing to cooperate with Europe over coronavirus
- New shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds attacks ministers over EU cooperation
- Says government putting ‘ideology over the national interest’ amid coronavirus
- Pointed to lack of joint working on ventilators, protective kit and testing
New shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said the UK did not have the ‘luxury’ of taking a ‘partisan approach’
Labour today accused ministers of putting ‘ideology over the national interest’ by failing to cooperate with the EU amid the coronavirus crisis.
New shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said the UK did not have the ‘luxury’ of taking a ‘partisan approach’ in dealings with the bloc and other bodies such as the IMF.
And she said Labour’s new priority was to ensure Britain did not make a ‘chaotic’ exit from the EU.
The comments came with the government still dismissing warnings the Brexit transition period will have to be extended beyond December due to the pandemic.
The timetable for striking a comprehensive trade deal has been slammed as ‘fantasy land’ by Brussels.
Both UK negotiator David Frost and his counterpart Michel Barnier have been suffering coronavirus symptoms, while the focus of government across the continent has shifted entirely to controlling the killer disease.
Ms Dodds said: ‘I think it’s absolutely critical that at this time we don’t see the current Government prioritising ideology over national interest, and we really need to have coordination, not just with the EU actually, but also clearly with the IMF and with other countries across the world.
‘We desperately need to have that coordination and very sadly we’ve seen in areas like provision of protective equipment, testing capacity, ventilators and so forth, what happens when there isn’t that coordination and when international systems aren’t necessarily working in the way that they should be working.’
She added: ‘I think we’ve seen that ideological approach from Government towards the EU in particular, so I really hope that that changes because we don’t really have the luxury currently I think to be indulging in a partisan approach to these matters.’
The UK and EU are currently in a post-Brexit transition period which is due to expire on December 31 this year
In an interview with the PA news agency, Ms Dodds said now the UK was out of the EU the focus would be on avoiding the ‘kind of chaotic exit that has always been a threat under this Conservative Government’.
‘The last thing that many of our producers….would want to see would be a kind of chaotic approach to trade coming at the end of the year after this very, very difficult period that we’re going through economically now.’
An email mix-up was blamed for the UK not joining in an EU scheme for procuring ventilators recently.
There have also been claims that British ministers and officials have been skipping the bloc’s key meetings, despite being entitled to attend during the transition.
The UK and EU are currently in a ‘standstill’ period, lasting until the close of 2020, during which they are supposed to hammer out the terms of their future trading relationship.
But the coronavirus crisis has torpedoed talks, with negotiators unable to meet face to face to discuss the way forward.
The bloc did not believe the end of December deadline was achievable even before the deadly outbreak and there are now growing calls for the British government to agree to an extension of the transition period.
There are also fears that EU video conferencing capability is already creaking, potentially making complex trade talks difficult if not impossible.
However, Downing Street remains absolutely adamant that it will not seek to delay the end of transition.