No Deal Brexit Is No Problem, Says A Passionate Iain Duncan Smith

26 July 2018, 07:45

Iain Duncan Smith dismissed concerns that leaving the European Union with no deal would be disastrous for Britain.

The former Conservative leader told LBC that the reports have been "extreme" and that stockpiling is something that sensible governments regularly do.

Speaking to Tom Swarbrick, he said: "The reality is that a no-deal is not a no-deal. In a sense, the term means nothing at all.

"What it's referring to is that we wouldn't reach a special arrangement around how we operate our trade, so there wouldn't be a special free trade arrangement, which is what the government is actually seeking at the moment.

"What it does mean is that there is a deal and the deal is that we would leave under World Trade Organisation terms, which the EU already operates under for all its trade outside the EU, as we do."

Mr Duncan Smith also dismissed worries over medicine and air travel, adding: "The British Civil Aviation Authority is the third largest in the world. It dominates the EU Civil Aviation Authority completely.

"If they don't do an Open Skies Agreement - which is, by the way, a signed piece of paper - then all the Atlantic and Polar routes are closed to their traffic. So it's in their interest more than in ours.

"And two-thirds of the medicine exchanged between the UK and the EU is in the EU's direction. They import more of our pharmaceuticals than we import from them. So getting that right is important."