UK parliament votes overwhelmingly in support of triggering article 50 withdrawal

But Greens MEP Molly Scott Cato and former UK ambassador to the EU  Sir Ivan Rogers warn about the economic consequences of a UK exit

By Martin Banks

Martin Banks is a senior reporter at the Parliament Magazine

03 Feb 2017

Senior British Greens MEP Molly Scott Cato has warned of Britain becoming the "world’s biggest tax haven" when it leaves the EU.

Her comments came after the UK parliament voted on Wednesday night to back the result of last June’s EU Referendum.

Speaking in the European Parliament, Scott Cato, said, "While we knew this result was coming of course it still felt bad."

The deputy fears the UK will "follow the route being pushed by some hard-Brexit supporters and become one of the globe’s leading tax havens."


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She said, "I see a great risk with Britain leaving the EU and thus becoming the biggest tax haven in the world."

Her comments, at a briefing with journalists, came after British MPs voted by 498 to 114 in support of the Brexit Bill that would allow UK prime minister Theresa May to trigger Article 50, the formal process of leaving the EU.

After the vote, UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said, "Labour MPs voted more than three to one in favour of triggering Article 50. Now the battle [...] ahead is to shape the Brexit negotiations, to put jobs, living standards and accountability centre stage […] Labour's amendments are the real agenda. The challenge is for MPs of all parties to ensure the best deal for Britain."

On Thursday, the UK government published what Downing Street had called a "substantial" White Paper on Brexit which set out their Brexit negotiating plans.

Elsewhere, there were reports that a leaked European Parliament paper has called for the EU to strike a "workable agreement" with the UK to protect the City of London post-Brexit.

The report by the parliament's committee for economic and monetary affairs, notes, "The exclusion of the main European financial centre from the internal market could have consequences in terms of jobs and growth in the EU. It is in the interest of EU-27 and the UK to have an open discussion on this point. A badly designed final deal would damage both the UK and the other 27 EU member states."

However, Italian S&D MEP Roberto Gualtieri, who chairs the committee, commented on Twitter, "Unfortunate that old non relevant drafts of internal background technical notes on Brexit have been leaked. Work on political resolution yet to start."

Meanwhile, the former UK Permanent Representative to the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers, told the House of Commons European Scrutiny committee on Wednesday that many in the EU believe the UK would not risk exiting without a deal.

He said, "The view of many will be that the implications for the UK of walking away without any deal on the economic side and without any preferential arrangement and walking into a World Trade Organisation-only world are – from their perspective, which may be a misreading of us – so unpalatable that we won’t do it."

 

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