Brexit won’t hit ties with Britain, assures China

When the government released Brexit “sectoral analyses” past year under the same terms, MPs were not allowed to take phones or recording devices into the room, and officials watched while they read.

“As a trade and strategic partner of both Britain and the EU, China certainly hopes that the result (of Brexit) will be good for both sides”, said Cui Hongjian, director of the European studies department at the China Institute of International Studies.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May (L) speaks to Chinese President Xi Jinping (not pictured) during their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on February 1, 2018.

This approach also came under attack by some MPs, who said it was a “farce” for the document to be released confidentially for only a few hundred people to see when it was likely to end up all over the Internet.

Resisting the much-spread idea that nothing would change post-Brexit, May said: “What we’re doing now is doing the job that the British people asked the government to do, which is to deliver on Brexit”.

May insisted to reporters flying with her to China, “I’m not a quitter”.

The study, EU Exit Analysis – Cross Whitehall Briefing, found the combined effect of trade barriers and lower immigration could mean United Kingdom borrowing is tens of billions of pounds higher in 2033-34 than under the status quo even when a U.S. trade deal and savings from quitting the EU are taken into account, according to BuzzFeed.

The Cabinet minister said commerce between the two countries could instead be improved through other measures to boost market access.

Brussels is impatiently awaiting clarity from Britain on the type of trade deal it will pursue with the European Union, with hopes to launch talks in March on future relations.

Earlier this month, the pressure group Migration Watch estimated that retaining European Union free movement rules for a two-year transition period would give almost a million more European Union citizens the right to apply for “settled status” in the UK.

“Are you asking me is there more for us to do, talk to people about, more generally about what we are achieving and what we are doing?”.

The leaked report has struck at the heart of government Brexit strategy, with one minister suggesting that analysis by officials should be discounted and another urging the government to reconsider its stance.

A friend of the minister in question told The Sun: “Many of us have made big sacrifices to be here”.

“A lot of Chinese people would affectionately call you, in Chinese, Auntie May”, said the interviewer.

He also said the document contains a “large number of caveats”, adding it is “not yet anywhere near being approved” by ministers.

May made it clear the government will not publish its internal Brexit economic assessment report because the findings were “preliminary”.