Starting to wonder whether senior ministers literally do not understand the concept of “negotiation”. The PM in Tokyo today:
1. We won’t make the decisions about what’s in the trade deals. That’s what negotiation is for.
2. We will have less power in those negotiations because as a smaller trade entity we have less to offer than the EU
3. We also, in the EU, work alongside others to set the negotiating mandate for the Commission.
4. So we already have a big voice in what is in bigger trade deals, negotiated by skilled professionals.
5. But we’re going to give it up so we can write our own negotiating mandates – 90% the same – and be less able to benefit from them.
6. Because, in the words of the Gvt, “it has sometimes seemed like the UK was not sovereign”. Brilliant.
Originally posted as a thread of 7 tweets on Twitter on 30 August 2017. View the original thread.