UK POOL

London - 14 February 2018

1. SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary

"If we are going to accept laws, then we need to know who is making them, and with what motives, and we need to be able to interrogate them in our own language, and we must know how they came in authority over us and how we can remove them. And the trouble with the EU is that for all its idealism, which I acknowledge, and for all the good intentions of those who run the EU institutions, there is no demos – or at least we in the UK I don't think have ever really felt part of such a demos – however others in the EU may feel. The British people have plenty of common sympathies with the people of France, of course we do, but it is hard to deny that we also share common sympathies with plenty of non-EU people – the Americans, the Swiss, the Canadians, the Pakistanis, Thais, and that is one of the reasons why we in the UK have had such difficulty in adapting to the whole concept of EU integration. To understand why EU regulation is not always suited to the economic needs of the UK, it is vital to understand that EU law is a special type of law, unlike anything else on earth. It is not just about business convenience. It is expressly teleological. It is there to achieve a political goal. The aim is to create an overarching European state as the basis for a new sense of European political identity. British politicians, Labour and Tory, have always found that ambition very difficult. It is hard to make it cohere with our particular traditions of independent parliamentary and legal systems that go back centuries, and in spite of many sheep-like coughs of protest from the UK, the process of integration has deepened, and the corpus of EU law has grown ever vaster and more intricate, and ever more powers and competences have been handed to EU institutions, culminating in the Treaty of Lisbon."

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2. SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary

"We would be mad to go through this process of extrication from the EU, and not to take advantage of the economic freedoms it will bring. We will stop paying ever more colossal sums to the EU every year and as the Prime Minister herself has said, that will leave us with more to spend on our domestic priorities, including, yes, the NHS. We will be able to take back control of our borders – not because I am hostile to immigrants or immigration. Far from it. We need talented people to come and make their lives in this country – doctors, scientists, the coders and programmers who are so crucial to Britain's booming tech economy. It was my proudest boast as Mayor of London that we had 400-thousand French men and women living in the British capital – high-earning and high-spending types – while only about 20-thousand UK nationals went the other way, lived in Paris. We've got to stay that way, we must remain a magnet for ambition and drive. But we also need to ask ourselves some hard questions about the impact of 20 years of uncontrolled immigration by low-skilled, low-wage workers – and what many see as the consequent suppression of wages and failure to invest properly in the skills of indigenous young people. We do not want to haul up the drawbridge; and we certainly don't want to minimise the wonderful contribution they made and certainly we don't want to deter the international students who make such a vital contribution to our Higher Education economy, 155-thousand Chinese students alone, but we want to exercise control; and if we are going to move from a low-wage, low-productivity economy to a high-wage, high productivity economy – as we must – then Brexit gives us back at least one of the levers that we need."

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3. SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary

"It would be absurd if we were obliged to obey laws over which we have no say and no vote. As the Prime Minister said at Lancaster House remaining within the single market 'would to all intents and purposes mean not leaving the EU at all.' The British people should not have new laws affecting their everyday lives imposed from abroad, when they have no power to elect or remove those who make those laws."

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4. SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary

"We will decide on laws, not according whether they help to build the United States of Europe, noble goal though that may be, but because we want to create the best platform for the economy to grow and to help people live their lives. And the crucial thing is that when we're running ourselves and when all these freedom are open before us, we'll no longer bbe able to blame Brussels for our woes because our problems will be our responsibility and no one else's and indeed no one should think that Brexit is some sort of economic panacea any more than it is right to treat it as an economic pandemic. On the contrary, the success of Brexit will depend on what we make of it."

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5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary:

"It's only by taking back control of our laws that UK firms and entrepreneurs will have the freedom to innovate without the risk of having to comply with some directive devised by Brussels at the urgings of some lobby group with the specific aim of holding back a UK competitor. That would be intolerable, it would be undemocratic and it would make it impossible for us to do serious free trade deals. It's only by taking back control of our regulatory framework and our tariff schedules that we can do these deals and exploit the changes in the world economy."

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Britain should make a clean break with European Union laws and regulations after it leaves the bloc, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Wednesday, arguing that the UK will prosper after Brexit by "going global."

Johnson, who was a leader of the "leave" campaign during Britain's 2016 EU membership referendum, used a speech in London to argue for "an outward-facing, liberal and global Britain" after the UK leaves the bloc.

"We would be mad to go through this process of extrication from the EU and not to take advantage of the economic freedoms it will bring," he said.

It was the first in a series of speeches by senior ministers that the British government hopes will show unity and energy around Brexit after months of prevarication and mixed messages.

But Johnson's speech highlighted divisions within the Conservative government over what kind of relationship Britain wants with the EU after it leaves the bloc in March 2019.

Some ministers, including Treasury chief Philip Hammond, want to stay as close as possible to the bloc's borderless single market and tariff-free customs union. Others, including Johnson, want a definitive break so Britain can pursue a distinct economic policy and new trade deals.

With just over a year until Britain leaves the EU, the two factions are still fighting for supremacy in the UK government.

Johnson said Britain should not agree to accept EU rules in return for access to its markets, saying it would be "absurd if we had to obey laws over which we had no say and no vote."

He said "it's only by taking back control of our regulatory framework and our tariff schedules" that Britain can strike new trade deals with the United States and other countries.

Johnson is among the favourites to replace Prime Minister Theresa May as Conservative leader. But his prominent role in the anti-EU campaign - and an earlier role as a Brussels-based journalist writing sometimes fanciful stories about the bloc's bureaucracy - has made him unpopular with pro-EU politicians and voters.

In his speech, Johnson sought to reassure voters who wanted to remain in the EU that Brexit can be grounds for much more hope than fear.

Opponents of Brexit were unimpressed, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Johnson's claim that the EU aimed to build a European super-state was "total nonsense."