FORMER Foreign Secretary Lord Owen today demanded the EU releases Britain from a stranglehold and let the UK forge trade deals now.
The ex SDP leader said Britain risks being “pushed over a cliff” with a bad Brexit deal unless it can start negotiating trade agreements straightaway.
Speaking in Switzerland, the prominent Leave campaigner said Britain should threaten a walkout if the EU blocks British trade negotiations with non-EU members.
He said the Government should refuse to exit under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and instead use the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to withdraw sooner.
He said: “The UK has to be able to start negotiating international trade agreements before exit. This is a non-negotiable issue.
“So is the UK having full World Trade Organisation membership in our own right.
“To fail to have these two issues put into operation and sanctioned under UK law in the European Communities Act legislation would be gross negligence.
“Under any of the options for negotiating we must have these safeguards, or we otherwise face being pushed over a cliff edge after waiting for an EU decision in 2018-9 which might prove to be unacceptable.”
The peer also called for the Government to carry over EU law into British legislation so at the outset of the negotiating process nothing will change.
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