No need to pay anything to the EU for allowing them free access to UK market

I think Mr Davis was carefully trying to avoid ruling anything in or out in his answer, in accordance with stated government policy of not revealing the negotiating position until the talks begin.

 

I see no need to offer any continuing contributions to the EU. Isn’t it odd the way some in the media has leapt onto a non statement and drawn the wrong conclusions?  The one that took the biscuit was the idea that the pound rose against the Euro on this “good news”. It was neither good nor news. The pound has been rising against the Euro for several days. The FTSE fell today, so why didn’t they say “The FTSE fell on fears that the UK would still have to contribute to the EU after exit”, if they were determined to use this wrong story?

68 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    December 1, 2016

    Indeed but the BBC and channel four coverage are both still hugely biased to remain, usually about five to one in any discussion. I still wonder if remainers T May & P Hammond are really up to the job.

    They seem far more concerned with copying an Ed bonkers Miliband agenda, putting up taxes further and passing daft red tape laws to tell business people, agents and Landlords how they should run their businesses.

    1. Paul H
      December 2, 2016

      Stop wondering. It’s become rapidly apparent (not that the omens were ever good, especially with May’s record at the Home Office) that they are not. May’s stand-in for competence is authoritarianism.

    2. Paul Lee
      December 2, 2016

      A bit off topic, but landlords are not really “businesses” but speculators, rent seekers or “rentiers” extracting rent from productive, for a private monopoly, without a corresponding increase in output. The UK’s problem in a nutshell! So I wish we could get back to the classical economist demarcation of the rentier v the capitalist and the worker. Also land isn’t capital

      1. Edward2
        December 2, 2016

        If you earn a living from doing it
        It’s a business.
        Just because you don’t like it doesn’t alter that.

        And land is capital
        It’s valued
        And it’s recorded on balance sheets

    3. Jerry
      December 2, 2016

      @LL; “[governments] passing daft red tape laws to tell business people, agents and Landlords how they should run their businesses.”

      Only trouble Mr Lifelogic, you might well be the “Mr Nice-guy” in the business free-for-all you imply you want but many, if not the majority, would not be. Do you really think that without adequate regulation the likes of ‘Rackmanism’ in the private rental sector, or other types of financial & tax abuse elsewhere, would not be rife once again?…

      Your rants against government(s) are akin to the general who shoots the messenger upon receiving bad news! If you want to have a rant then you need to target your comments towards those in your own and other businesses that abuse the system, not government who have to then waste much time and money imposing regulation upon not only the bad guys but the good guys too.

      1. Edward2
        December 2, 2016

        Landlords are currently unpopular with the media.
        Not that Councils made brilliant Landlords either.
        In my opinion.
        The latest red tape is to ban letting agents charge tenants fees.
        OK that’s the law.
        But their costs will simply be passed into the Landford who will increase rents to recover that charge.

        1. Jerry
          December 2, 2016

          @Edward2; I don’t think anyone has suggested that letting agents should not recover their costs! The problem was (is) the up-front fees that are often well into three figures, why can’t agents recover their costs over the course of the first tenancy contract period, which is what I suspect most will now do -of course, now the question will be who pays the letting agents costs, the owner, the tenant or more fairly both, after all the owner wants to let their property just as much as the tenant wants to rent it…

        2. rose
          December 2, 2016

          I can remember under the socialist governments of the 60s and 70s private rented accommodation all but drying up. It was regulated out of existence. Only the Rachmans wanted to carry on. Decent landladies and landlords put their savings elsewhere and didn’t take people into their houses any more. the conservative governments which followed tried to tackle the problem a bit but it was a long time before anyone dared to go back into letting. They had been well and truly disincentivised.

          1. Edward2
            December 2, 2016

            Correct Rose.
            Faulty State intervention ruined what was a successful private rental market at that time.

        3. stred
          December 3, 2016

          Many private landlords don’t use letting agents, save the fees, don’t charge prospective tenants to view and complete tenancy agreement forms, which are free, at no charge to the tenant. This enables both parties to have better value.

  2. alan jutson
    December 1, 2016

    Anything for headlines.

    Detail is is the small print, just like Government Policy and Budgets.

  3. NoChange
    December 1, 2016

    Mr Davis is having to answer repetitively. It is a strange Parliamentary procedure. Couldn’t Remoaners just have some electronic device in their constituencies with a button marked “Ditto” with a direct link to Mr Speaker?

    The SNP should save themselves alot of time. Mr Speaker could just send an automated mass reply to Mrs Sturgeon: “Yes, we know, you said!”. She then could tell SNPs : “No change, they’re still answering the same as in the past two years.”
    Also an automated Tory Party immigration and Brexit announcement every 24th December. “No, we still haven’t signed Article 50 and yes the immigration figures are even worse!”
    Either the Tories are planning a military coup or they have all decided to retire before the next General Election.

    1. hefner
      December 1, 2016

      What about a “Ditto”button for one particular contributor on this blog?

      1. Hope
        December 2, 2016

        Come on, where is your Christmas spirit? Reading the site is voluntary. Some of your comments make interesting reading and it could improve the content of this site, your current whinging is not brining get out the best of you.

  4. forthurst
    December 1, 2016

    Our negotiating position on the value of our trade with the EU should be based upon the relative values of the total of goods and services that we import and export. Any talk about excluding our services or charging for access should be countered by the threat to put maximum tariffs on all their consumer goods and all their agricultural produce without exception.

  5. Chris
    December 1, 2016

    The media are so used to being spoonfed soundbites every minute of the day by previous “image driven” government that they now resort to grasping at anything they hear, and without thought and careful analysis they just give a knee jerk response. It is pathetic and we deserve better.

  6. Hope
    December 1, 2016

    This would all stop if May submitted article 50 and got on with it. It was your party that allowed this mess and the continuance of project fear to bring about a second referendum, EU style led by the traitorous politicos.

    1. Lifelogic
      December 1, 2016

      We shall see, I rather suspect you are right. T May is pathetically dithering and it seems she is another Libdim Cameron at heart. Her(?) attacks on the children of immigrants, putting them at the back of places for schools was clearly appalling. It is not the children’s who are at fault after all.

    2. Chris
      December 1, 2016

      I believe you are right, Hope.

  7. stred
    December 1, 2016

    Poor old David looked a bit fed up and pink this morning when I caught the end of the debate. It must be like being a teacher in a school with particularly thick and vocal children on one side of the classroom and a bunch of obsequious creeps on the other.

  8. Timaction
    December 1, 2016

    I’m afraid our mainstream media is no longer fit for purpose and just makes its own agenda and propaganda.

    I see that immigration has risen again under the Tory’s. Who’d have thought they could be even more incompetent than Labour. I actually think the legacies want the indigenous population to disappear. We’re only here to pay the taxes and get to the back of the queue for all housing, health and education!

  9. Chairman Miaow
    December 1, 2016

    The BBC, Sky News, CNN, may as well stop all comments about business and politics. It is quite startling and a little scary how many ordinary people now have their own news service via people they know/social media/ and interpretations of news via their own experience.

    Our media, changes its personnel so often it seems they are unaware what they said last year or even last quarter. Key that in to immigrants from all corners of the world via school, work and neighbourhoods chirping in with info..then.. well our licence fees from the BBC should be backdated 10 years ( at least ) and refunded for Christmas. One could suggest their journalists should be sent to monasteries and nunneries for re-education but I suspect they would enjoy that and remind them vividly of their schooling (if any )

  10. Iain Moore
    December 1, 2016

    After 6 months of this it is pretty obvious that any ‘ bad’ news, no matter how tenuous, is always to be attributed to Brexit. It would be too much to ask the BBC to do anything else.

  11. acorn
    December 1, 2016

    Some of us out here are not Muppets JR. The Pound climbed against the Euro and the Dollar from 09:30 and peaked at 14:00; it shed three quarters of its gain by 16:30.

    We have got to the point, where prior knowledge of any uttering from D Davis or B Johnson, at home and definitely abroad, is a solid bet on the Pound going up against any G7 currency. Fill your boots in the FX market guys!!!

    BTW. Did you notice in the ONS migration stats at 09:30 this morning, that author uses the phrase “not statistically significant” fifteen times. Sounds like the ONS is getting its genitals squeezed by the Cabinet Office.

  12. ian
    December 1, 2016

    If companies want access to the EU free market as they call it after the country leaves they should pay for it themselves.
    Why should the taxpayers always have pay for them, that’s all you see these days is companies walking around with begging bowls, if they cannot afford 2 or 3 percent or 10% on cars and goods to the EU then they should not be in business, only small amount of companies export to the EU.

  13. ian wragg
    December 1, 2016

    Once again it’s the remainiacs making the running. Perhaps Mr. Davies meant that we would be charging the 27 to access our markets.
    If we are indeed to pay to sustaining a £70 billion deficit then this is the gift that keeps on giving for UKIP.

  14. agricola
    December 1, 2016

    I have told you before that those who would rubbish Brexit will clutch at any straw that can give them succour or be turned or interpreted to suit their agenda. I think the time has come to make idiots of them. We must get something humorous from their demented prattling.

  15. Bert Young
    December 1, 2016

    If there was any truth in the statement reported that we would consider making payments to the EU to remain in the single market , I would be incensed !!. All figures indicate it is the EU who would suffer and it is in their interests to have a non-tariff relationship . If they cannot understand this then they are mad .

    1. Sam Stoner
      December 2, 2016

      “They”? O dear, you misunderstand! It is not “they” who have raised the matter of the UK paying up, it is Mr Davis. And “all figures” make it clear how much worse the UK’s pain will be than the EU’s if Brexit goes ahead.
      If ..
      Facts and events are intruding on your Leave fantasies, I fear

      1. Edward2
        December 2, 2016

        Twaddle Sam
        He just said they would “consider it”
        That’s all.
        Your bias is showing.

  16. Caterpillar
    December 1, 2016

    Perhaps the media (and to be honest the electorate) will get excited about anything because it will soon be Xmas. Xmas signifies 6 (six) months from when the UK voted to leave the EU … six months of zero progress, nothing ruled in and nothing ruled out.

  17. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
    December 1, 2016

    Excellent idea that Britain, like other friendly countries like Norway and Switzerland will continue to contribute to the EU. Money that will go to their favored but poorer friends in the east (Poland, Hungary) and will make these countries even better trading partners in future and may also reduce immigration from these countries. The current trade deficit can be resolved by producing and exporting more to the EU, which may result from a good industrial strategy in Britain. The UK government is planning a better industrial policy I thought, including improving its productivity. A slightly lower pound sterling rate could also help. Sharing a bit more of your cake so others can eat it is not such a bad idea. All wealthy EU members do it as well.

    1. Anonymous
      December 1, 2016

      Except Britain doesn’t have real money, only debt.

    2. stred
      December 2, 2016

      PvL. The UK has been contributing large amounts of aid to countries like Poland and Romania for years in the form of remitted wages and benefits to children. We also pay for Greece and Spain to have motorways, tunnels and bridges with almost no traffic, when ours are jammed and we can’t even afford to finance bridges or the health service. In the Netherlands it is the same. Your motorways are jammed and passengers miss their flights, while you pay for projects in uncrowded countries.

      Even after leaving,the UK will still need European builders, factory workers and farm workers, because our education system has produced many school leavers who are NUT trained in academies of media studies instead of secondary moderns and the pupils want to work in a nail polishing salon or the building society instead of a cold building site.And that’s just the boys.

    3. Hope
      December 2, 2016

      No PvL this will not happen.nresidual amounts only continual subscription no. We have given enough to the EU dictatorship to expand East to cause conflict with Russia. The U.K. had to save European countries before and instead of eternal gratitude and thanks we have your sort of perverse idea that we owe you something. Go and do one PvL.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        December 2, 2016

        @Hope: Whereas the Britons were only a minority in the allied forces they seem to be the only ones who insist on eternal gratitude. I’m not Polish and don’t need your money. Expansion to the east was very much a British supported idea.

        1. rose
          December 2, 2016

          I would like to hear a little expression of gratitude for our 43 years of being a net contributor and for our taking in millions of EU citizens and giving them money, housing, education, and health, for them and their families, and for allowing them to send much of this money home.

          We are not the USA; we are a tiny, overpopulated island and we are sacrificing our children’s future – food, water, and energy security, and our environment, to say nothing of the terrifying financial debt, so as to meet all these obligations to other nations.

    4. rose
      December 2, 2016

      Dear Peter,
      We are sharing so much of the cake that people from abroad remark on how bad our infrastructure is compared to theirs.

      And don’t be too virtuous on the subject of asylum seekers either, as many of yours end up here anyway. If you are so much nicer, more tolerant, and generous than we are, why do they just use you to get the passports and then come here to settle?

      We are also paying more in defence of Europe.

      Immigration isn’t reduced by making the country of origin richer. Just look at Africa. When people were really poor, they couldn’t make the journey.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        December 2, 2016

        Dear Rose, I don’t believe the figures or reasons you suggest: there can be many reasons for infrastructure needing improvement, it is not a result of UK generosity to other countries.
        The Netherlands, much smaller than Britain and with about 1.5 x your population density has many more (accepted) refugees settling here than you.
        It is true that you spend more for your defense.
        Africans becoming richer or poorer is not up to us, you forget that there are other economic powers in the world. Only after a country becomes richer will its birthrate come down. On current trends Africa’s population will certainly double and could even tripple in the long term.
        Anyway, Africa is not part of the EU, your contribution to the EU would be spend on poorer areas (mainly in the east) within the EU. I’m glad you Mr. Davies is not excluding that possibility.

  18. norman
    December 1, 2016

    This media bias really is quite scary – you couldn’t make it up!
    As to the Single Market, from my CS experience, I realize this involves mutual compliance with a vast and complex regulatory framework, covering every commodity you could think of. I also realize this is absolutely sacrosanct to the EU, and there is no way Third Countries could circumvent it without special trade deals, that can take years to set up, no doubt with tariffs entailed. Even if we were to transpose all the regulations into our own law, trading partners would still want to vet compliance in each other’s countries – the consequences of not doing so could be serious. Am I being naive, or is it unrealistic of us to expect David Davis et al to override these considerations, without a damaging and bitter trade war with Europe? And could there be important strategic reasons for avoiding such an outcome? With all due concern to see Brexit succeed, do the public, or even many MPs, actually understand the enormity of the task. If not, we should encourage some patience for David Davis and his team, as not to do so might provide those many ‘wise’ pro-EU mandarins with ammunition.

  19. Bob
    December 1, 2016

    The media has been Frankfurt Schooled.

  20. Utterly
    December 1, 2016

    The media and Opposition would have no time to invent or imagine possible Brexit scenarios if the Government would get on with Brexit.

    Why did Mrs May attempt to get some kind of preliminary agreement prior to the signing Article 50 with Mrs Merkel? How could Mrs Merkel respond unilaterally without totally upsetting the whole EU negotiations stance?How can the EU do anything at all, being a bureaucracy, until the UK gets its finger out?

    I believe Mrs May’s position and the rest of the Brexit team is more to do with internal UK politics than anything to do with Brexit negotiations. No, we are not Brexit-weary. We require Hard Brexit since you’ve kept us waiting Mrs May for 9 months for nothing at all except hot air and the Remoaners sucking their thumbs and weeping over no-more-gravy train. Crybabies!

    1. Caterpillar
      December 2, 2016

      Utterly,

      I think it is difficult to see Mrs May’s Goevernment bringing Brexit about. Already by taking the wrong airport expansion decision the Government has successfully lost a Brexit supporter in the Commons, to be replaced by a LD who will vote against A50 given the opportunity. Meanwhile the Govt has chose to await the Supreme Court decision. The previous PM promised Next day A50, 6 months have gone by and nothing. I don’t think the concept of Brexit weary is relevant, I just think it is not going to happen … Brexit has been kicked into the long grass.

      1. Anonymous
        December 2, 2016

        I think it’s time to admit that Brexit is not going to happen.

  21. Richard1
    December 1, 2016

    Well I would rather see us give some overseas aid to non euro Eastern European countries if thats what’s needed to allow a face saving compromise on all sides. It would be money better spent than some other overseas aid right now, and it makes eminent sense for the UK to assist developing countries close to home.

    1. hy
      December 1, 2016

      we spend enough ‘ring fenced’ money on foreign aid already that could be better spent on our own public services. stop this wealth re-distribution.

  22. JJE
    December 1, 2016

    Were Mr. Hammond’s comments also misreported?

  23. zorro
    December 1, 2016

    Goodness me….. When will they just tell them straight? We do not need to pay a penny to access the internal market. Do we intend to charge them to access our market to sell their goods? Wecan if they want to go down that path, but that is not what we are offering…. The sneaky tactics of the talk downers really do make me wonder where their patriotism lies.

    zorro

  24. The Great Ear
    December 1, 2016

    “I think Mr Davis was carefully trying to avoid ruling anything in or out in his answer,” Yes it was slip of the tongue. , rather than anything like a freudian slip.I saw and heard him. He couldn’t unsay it as it would have reinforced what he said as an objective fact.
    He does say alot about Parliamentarian Remoaners and brown noser journos.

  25. Original Richard
    December 1, 2016

    As the Euro and EU migrant crises worsen any money given to some parts of the EU will be able to be taken from our foreign aid budget.

    Note that whilst Mrs. Merkel is uwilling to guarantee that 100K British born people who have legally moved to Germany can remain in Germany after Brexit, it is no problem for Mrs. Merkel to invite 1m+ illegal migrants to come and live in Germany.

  26. Donna McGovern
    December 1, 2016

    John, have you seen The Times front page saying Davis is backing a “soft Brexit” and no end to free movement? What the hell is going on?

  27. Prigger
    December 2, 2016

    BBC Question Time from Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Not one mention of President-Elect Trump.
    It must be the first QT for quite some time he has not been mentioned. You know, Mr Trump surprise to say …not a bad word said about him in Yorkshire. Only heard people saying “He’s right! ” Curious, actually. I agree he’s right tbut it’s still curious. Only heard negatives before about US Presidents, all of them.. Maybe negativity to Trump is a South of England and Scotland thing.
    Still curious though and I live here. Something’s happened!

    1. Edward2
      December 2, 2016

      It was a remarkable QT
      An audience that for once was not comprised of left wing public sector workers and a panel that had more than one person who spoke sense.
      A rare occasion.
      Dimblebee looked shocked.

  28. Sam Stoner
    December 2, 2016

    As Mr Redwood fully knows, the media ran the line about paying into the EU budget in order secure privileged market access because that is the line the media has been spun/ briefed by the government. Mrs May is edging towards a relationship with the EU akin to that of Norway. Mr Redwood is accordingly getting rattled!

  29. Margaret
    December 2, 2016

    It sounds like some patients who assert that because they have a headache they must have high blood pressure or their smoking habits havn’t caused them lung disease, it is the air conditioning at work.

  30. Anonymous
    December 2, 2016

    As I see it Remain are winning and are fortified because they believe that we are intolerant.

    We are not leaving the EU. In all practical sense Remainers are getting everything their way – especially on freedom of movement.

    The fact that immigration is increasing proves that “Britain has become intolerant since Brexit ” is a lie.

  31. A.Sedgwick
    December 2, 2016

    It should be made totally clear that we will pay zero into EU coffers after March 2019. Further if they sideline Ministers up until this time we should stop payments earlier as I am pretty sure President elect Trump would do.

    The Libdem victory at Richmond, how predictable was that – 100% ? – and the election of Mr. Nuttall as UKIP leader indicates that this battle is far from over. I believe Mrs.May and Mr. Hammond are not up to the job of delivering Brexit in the form 17.4m Leavers voted for. Libdems may as well rename the Party Remain and UKIP could well have a dozen MPs and spoil Conservative chances in many more in the next election unless the right and honourable/right honourable deal is done.

  32. Roy Grainger
    December 2, 2016

    I think you are being charitable John. Even saying it is an option to keep paying in signals to the EU that this is a UK fall-back position so they will insist on it. It weakens his negotiating hand. A proper negotiator (Trump) would have just said “There is no chance we will keep paying in” even if eventually he would be prepared to. A big blunder by Davis, reinforces my view that the vast majority of politicians know nothing at all about negotiating.

  33. ferdinand
    December 2, 2016

    Fanciful ideas are surely always the product of uncertainty. It’s just that the press need to sell papers and normality doesn’t sell.

  34. English Pensioner
    December 2, 2016

    If the Pound rises against the Euro, it’s normally because the Euro is so week. More realistic is what the Pound does against the dollar as the latter is a world wide trading currency.

    The pound appears to have risen against the dollar today, and I would argue that this is a sign that we are likely to have better relations with the US now Trump is to become president and our trade will increase. However, I’m sure that someone will manage to argue the exact opposite and claim that the dollar has fallen against the pound and it’s all the fault of Trump and a sign of doom to come.

    Who knows? The price is probably decided by a computer based on demand for currency for the day’s trading. Surely it’s the long term trends that matter, not a minor blip for a day or even a week.

    As for paying the EU for the privilege of trading with the EU, surely it should be the other way round, we should be charging they for access to the UK market as they sell more to us than we do to them. I’m sure that the German car makers and the French farmers wouldn’t want us to go and buy from elsewhere.

  35. bratwurst
    December 2, 2016

    None of the EFTA/EEA countries pay for market access. They pay grants in aid to help the emerging economies of Eastern and Central Europe and they pay for participation in decentralised agencies and programmes.

  36. fedupsoutherner
    December 2, 2016

    This whole debacle has been going on for such a long time now that I don’t think anyone puts any value on anything anyone says anymore regarding Brexit. We read and hear such a lot of nonsense everyday it seems. Listening to QT last night it was as though we were still in the run up to the referendum. Same old quote, same old concerns and no real answers. Perhaps it might be best for us all to hibernate until Mrs May makes up her mind and actually does something. Talk of Art 50 being put off until the Autumn because of the European courts just makes my blood boil. Do we really need to negotiate anything??? Just leave for goodness sake.

  37. Anna
    December 2, 2016

    PvL: supporting poorer nations is an excellent idea in theory; however, it can misfire in reality. Eur 900 million have ‘disappeared’ in Eastern Europe reportedly in vote-buying and sweeteners. It was a mistake to admit Eastern European countries to the EU so soon after their escape from the collapsed Soviet Union. Theses new democracies are fragile and corrupt. They needed time and support to strengthen their democracies and civil institutions before EU money was lavished on them.

    We also support the poorer EU countries by absorbing their workers – most of them very hardworking – into the UK economy. Polish workers remit more than £1 billion of their earnings here back to Poland where the in-work benefits they receive have a buying power much higher than in the UK. We benefit from industrious Poles, but free movement also has a downside in that 989 Poles are currently in UK prisons for serious offences at huge cost to the UK taxpayer.

  38. Spinflight
    December 2, 2016

    John,

    Five years ago you did a couple of diary entries on the ridiculous number of officers in the Armed forces which you titled ‘cut to the bone?’.

    Any chance of posting more recent figures?

    Reply I don’t have up to date ones

  39. Robin Davies
    December 2, 2016

    I thought that the EU exports more to us than we to them so surely it should be they who should pay for access to our market.

    1. Sam Stoner
      December 2, 2016

      That is certainly what you LEAVERS were consistently told.
      And yet here now is Mr Davis raising the notion that the UK will have to pay the EU!
      So what’s going on? Is Mr Davis a remain mole? I don’t think so. Is Mr Davis being forced to face up reality? Ah yes, I think so.
      The reality – which was hidden from you Leavers – is that the UK exports almost half its goods and services to the EU-27. The EU-27 exports about 6 percent of its goods and services to the UK. The UK needs the EU-27 a lot more – eight times more – than the EU-27 needs the UK.

      And that is why the UK will have to pay – a lot – if it wants to leave the EU yet keep trading on privileged EU terms.
      Yes, Leavers, you have been sold a pup.
      But you were warned.
      And you know, it’s not too late to change your mind, just like Mr Davis is changing his mind

  40. Freeborn John
    December 2, 2016

    I am wondering why the Conservative government has signed up to the EU’s Unified Patent Court. The UPC is subservient to the ECJ which has rule that only states that accept the supremacy of EU law may take part in the new patent court system. One may say the UK would be part of this system for 2 years but would be madness to go through the turmoil of joining the UPC only to introduce more change later. Fair more likely is that government is planning for a soft brexit where we accept the supremacy of EU law, the jurisdiction of the ECJ and those things that the EU insist come attached such as EU budget contributions and freedom of movement. The Bizarre UK decision to join the UPC only makes sense if the government is planning for BINO, I.e brexit in name only.

  41. NA
    December 3, 2016

    Well you said it yourself John a few weeks back, it is “wicked” how some want to talk the economy down.

Comments are closed.