'Grow up and get real': Peter Mandelson hits out at Brexit campaigners over UK trade claims

'Grow up': Peter Mandelson's message to Leave campaigners
Joseph Watts7 June 2016
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Peter Mandelson today told Leave campaigners to “grow up and get real” over their claims that UK trade would not be damaged by Brexit.

The former business secretary said that anything the UK organised outside the EU would be “second best” to access to the single market.

He also accused Leave campaigners of trying to stake Britain’s future on what they had seen in “crystal balls”, adding “the only certainty from Leave is uncertainty”.

The Labour peer joined forces with Tory Business Secretary Sajid Javid to warn that UK firms could be slapped with a £34 billion export tax after Brexit.

Lord Mandelson said: “Boris, Nigel, Michael — they are deceiving themselves if they think the UK can quit the EU one day and the next still have free access to Europe’s marketplace.

"That is just not how the world works. Our European partners would not be a soft touch, they are not naïve.”

The former EU trade commissioner added: “So the only certainty from Leave is uncertainty.

“And as for their claim that we could do without Europe and trade just as well with the rest of the world, I say grow up. Get real.”

Mr Javid warned that extra red tape as UK businesses had to deal with trade tariffs would mean additional costs of up to £34 billion, at an average of £80,000 for each exporter.

He said: “For large companies it would be larger, for small companies smaller, but faced with that huge extra burden our companies would simply export less. And that means lower growth and fewer jobs.

“They would withdraw Britain from the world’s largest market, but they can’t say what would replace it. When asked, all they say is ‘we just don’t know’.”

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