“This is no longer a theoretical debate. It’s about the future of our nation. False choices and sloganeering must be avoided at all costs.” The words come from the Confederation of British Industry’s new report on immigration after Brexit. But they do not apply to the issue of immigration alone. They apply, with increasing urgency and historic seriousness, to every component aspect of the Brexit process – and to the big picture of Britain’s future relationship with the EU too. On issues that range from fruit-picking to criminal justice and the car industry, and from the value of holiday spending money to the Irish peace process and the viability of our universities, the Brexit debate is no longer about theory and slogans but increasingly about real-world choices and the kind of Britain that we seek to be.
Over the past two weeks, ministers have ramped up the possibility that Britain will be forced to crash out of the EU in March 2019 unless the EU takes a more “flexible and creative” approach to Brexit negotiations. Theresa May and other ministers have gone on a sales drive with European leaders for this approach, while Jeremy Hunt warns from the sidelines that the two sides are heading for no deal by accident and Liam Fox goes further by saying that a no-deal outcome is more likely than a deal. This looks like what it is: a coordinated strategy to try to push the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, into a more accommodating response.
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