At best we'll get Canada plus! EU expert says the UK will pay a price for Canada deal

Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, said the UK will “at best” get a “Canada plus” deal but the EU will make Britain pay a price for it. Speaking on BBC Newsnight, he said: “They say it’s Norway or Canada, the British are probably going to ask for something that is neither. “Based on regularity alignment, we’d be almost in the single market, we’d be aligned with EU rules.” Mr Grant warned that if the UK changed the rules the EU would “punish us a bit” by removing access to the single market.

He said: “If we changed our rules, we’d allow them to punish us a bit by removing market access but Barnier is going to say no to that. “We will at best get I believe... what I’d call Canada plus which means Canada but with a bit more services added in.“Not single market but some access in aviation, financial services, electricity, data flows which matter.” Mr Grant added that the UK would have to take on some of the EU’s rules as a "price" for a trade deal. He said: “We’ll have to pay a price though. The price would be taking the rules from the EU, paying money into the budget and taking something like the Court of Justice to tell us what to do.”