Sunday shows round-up: Davis calls for ‘Canada plus plus plus’ trade deal

David Davis: May’s EU deal ‘a statement of intent’

The Brexit Secretary David Davis joined Andrew Marr this morning to discuss Theresa May’s recent round of negotiations in Brussels, where the European Union finally agreed to progress to the second phase. Friday’s breakthrough included an agreement that there would be ‘no hard border’ between the UK and Ireland, and that the UK would maintain ‘full alignment’ with the EU’s single market and customs union. Marr asked Davis about how the Prime Minister’s deal would affect the negotiations going forward:

DD: This [deal] was a statement of intent more than anything else. It was much more a statement of intent that it was a legally enforceable thing.

AM: Here’s the crucial question – that promise on full alignment that we have made not just to the EU but also to the Irish government – if we don’t get a deal, does that promise get torn up?

DD: I think if we don’t get a deal we’re going to have to find a way of making sure we keep the open frictionless border – as it were, an invisible border – in Northern Ireland.