Britain should be a 'RULE-TAKER' to Brussels: Mandelson rages at demands for Hard Brexit

Lord Mandelson said the Cabinet has no united vision of what a future partnership with the EU should look like and suggested Brussels should not trigger sufficient progress next month either. In a gloomy appearance the prominent Remain campaigner and chief ally of Tony Blair warned the UK will “never be an equal partner” to Brussels and should accept its fate as a “rule taker”. 

He also risked infuriating eurosceptics by calling for a “pause” in the divorce so voters can make “informed and rational” decisions, but insisted this would not be an attempt to “defy the will of the people”. 

He said: “Who knows how long the Conservatives will remain in office. Brexit may even destroy Brexit with all its emerging contradictions, complexity costs and divisions.” Mandelson made the remarks at a Centre for European Reform event in Brussels shortly after the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, gave an uncompromising speech on Brexit.