The U.K.’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the United Kingdom will hold its line that freedom of movement for EU citizens “will have to end” after Britain’s departure from the bloc.
“I don’t think [the freedom of movement] is tenable and, more importantly, the prime minister has made it clear that freedom of movement will have to end,” Raab said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper.
Raab said a deal with the EU on access rights for people was tied to a trade deal, which would include a “sensible discussion about the visas needed to facilitate the trade.”
Asked about a letter published last week by Philip Hammond, chancellor of the exchequer, claiming a no-deal Brexit could lower Britain’s GDP by as much as 10 percent, Raab said he was “always chary of any forecast because most of them have been proved to be wrong.”
Raab has negotiated Brexit with EU counterpart Michel Barnier since being appointed secretary of state in a government reshuffle in July. On Barnier, Raab said, “I think he’s a steely interlocutor; he knows what he’s seeking to achieve.”