LEADING EU politician Guy Verhofstadt has hit out at the claims of Brexiteers – pointing to evidence that they "lied" on trade.
Belgian MEP Verhofstadt was the EU's chief Brexit co-ordinator, and has previously told a Westminster committee that it's a "simple fact" Scotland would have no major obstacles in joining the EU as an independent nation.
He took to Twitter to post a graph that compared trade figures for the UK and European Union nations.
Verhofstadt said: "The Brexiteers lied. The reality check: Trading is much harder outside of the [European Union's] single market!"
The Brexiteers lied.
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) December 11, 2021
The reality check: Trading is much harder outside of the 🇪🇺 single market ! pic.twitter.com/VgjWf5QeNY
The graph posted by the MEP shows the "trade flows as per cent of GDP" for the UK in blue and "EU main countries" in pink.
These main countries are Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
As the impact of Brexit hit, the UK's blue bars can be seen falling, hitting a decade low-point towards 2021.
The hit to UK trade comes after Scotland was pulled out of the EU against the wishes of its voters.
In 2018, Tory MP Douglas Ross tried to trip then chief Brexit negotiator Verhofstadt up on Scottish independence.
The former Belgian prime minister was appearing in front of Westminster’s Home Affairs Committee.
Ross asked the MEP if still believed comments he had made in September 2016 when he said “if Scotland decides to leave the UK to be an independent state and they decide to be part of the EU I think there is no big obstacle to do that”.
“That’s a fact. That’s a simple fact,” Verhofstadt told the Committee.
“You don’t think that’s an obstacle for them to simply rejoin?” Ross questioned.
Shutting Ross down, Verhofstadt replied: “I think the problem isn’t that. The problem is how we can find a close relationship between the UK and the EU, and during that discussion we will not do anything that is an interference in the constitutional order of the UK. We are going to avoid that. That’s not our task.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel