George Osborne: Theresa May causing 'enormous damage' by not ruling out no-deal
The ex-chancellor says keeping alive the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal is causing "enormous damage".
Saturday 16 February 2019 16:59, UK
George Osborne has called on the prime minister to "stop playing Russian roulette" and take a no-deal Brexit off the table.
Theresa May has argued that doing so would weaken her hand in EU negotiations as she tries to improve the withdrawal agreement.
But the former chancellor told Sky News that "enormous damage" was being - and would continue to be - done while ever there was potential for Britain to leave the EU on 29 March without an agreement.
He said it was "not acceptable" for the country to leave without a deal and "tear up our economic and security relations with our nearest neighbours".
Mr Osborne, who famously said in 2017 that Mrs May was a "dead woman walking", argued: "Companies are moving people and assets out of Britain and they're certainly not investing in Britain."
He reiterated his view that leaving the EU was a "huge mistake" and his preference for the UK to remain in the single market and customs union.
Mrs May has so far been unable to get her withdrawal agreement through parliament, largely due to the unpopular Irish backstop.
The backstop is an insurance policy to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic if a free trade deal between the UK and EU is not reached by the end of the transition period. It would see some EU trade rules continue to apply in the UK.
Mrs May has said she will continue to negotiate with the EU over the backstop - but with time running out, fears of no deal being reached are intensifying.
If this happens, the UK would leave on 29 March without a transition period and without any major agreement on its future relationship with the bloc.
The UK would have to trade with the EU on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms which regulate global trade, with rules on import taxes and limits on the number of goods supplied to other countries.
Meanwhile, Mr Osborne claims the Tory party needs to continue to change to ensure it remains in government.
He said: "I worked really hard when I was chancellor to make the Conservatives a modern, compassionate party, in touch with urban Britain, in touch with a diverse Britain.
"What makes me anxious as a Conservative is to see the party moving away from that and in some sense running against metropolitan Britain.
"If you run against metropolitan Britain, metropolitan Britain will run against you and you won't have a Conservative government. So the Conservative Party needs to continue to change to make sure it's in touch with modern Britain rather than fighting against modern Britain."