UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has stated that the UK is “heading for no deal by accident” during talks in Austria on Wednesday.
At the press conference in Austria, he stated:
“This is not project fear, this is project reality” in reference to the latest issues the UK has been dealing with regarding the Brexit plan.
Hunt believes that a no-deal Brexit would be a “huge geo-strategic mistake” as it would have an immense impact on both sides.
He tweeted:
“As I said in Vienna this morning, we want the EU to prosper but there is a real risk of a messy divorce which would be a geostrategic mistake. Let’s have a pragmatic solution to allow the deep and special friendship between UK and EU to continue.”
Hunt has been vocal about his concerns of a potential occurrence of a no-deal Brexit situation. During a meeting in France on Tuesday he stated that the occurrence of a no-deal Brexit was “increasing by the day” and that the European Commission needs to change their approach in order to reach some sort of mutual agreement.
“We have to make a decision on Britain’s future relationship with the EU by the end of this year and we have to be very honest with ourselves about the choices that we face. At the moment we are heading for no deal by accident.”
Mr Hunt plans to have more talks this week with Theresa May and the French President, Emmanuel Macron. The prime minister will stay at the French President’s retreat in the South of France on Friday.
From a more positive stance, Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karin Kneissl, whose currently holding the EU presidency, has stated that the Eu has been preparing for all possible outcomes and deemed her talks with HUnt “excellent and inspiring”.
“From the [European] commission’s side there is a clear-cut schedule, so an accident is not really something people are working for.”
