Leaving single market 'like swapping a meal for a packet of crisps', warns ex-trade chief

The former boss of Liam Fox’s international trade department has warned that life outside the EU single market is like swapping a three-course meal for a packet of crisps.

In an intervention that could overshadow the international trade secretary’s speech on Tuesday, Sir Martin Donnelly said Britain faced a direct threat to its status as a leading service economy if it did not pursue close alignment with EU single market rules.

Donnelly, who will give a speech on the subject on Tuesday evening, hours after Fox’s own speech laying out the case for leaving the single market and customs union, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the UK risked being shut out entirely from its biggest market.
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“You’re giving up a three-course meal, the depth and intensity of our trade relationship across the European Union and partners now, for the promise of a packet of crisps in the future, if we manage to do trade deals in the future outside the EU which aren’t going to compensate for what we’re giving up,” he said.


Source : theguardian