Petty politics are the biggest threat to a good divorce deal between Britain and the EU, UK Finance Minister Philip Hammond said on Tuesday, warning that a bad Brexit agreement could harm the economic interests of both sides.
“I am confident that with the political will to put jobs and prosperity first we can achieve an early agreement on a transitional period,” Hammond said at an economic summit of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in Berlin.
There was a risk “that somehow we allow petty politics to interfere with economic logic, and we end up with a suboptimal solution that fails to maximize our mutual benefit,” he said.
Hammond said that the shift from industry to services in most major economies had led to the economic marginalization of many people who now view globalization as a threat.
He urged G20 leaders meeting in Hamburg next week to work toward the liberalization of trade in services.
May’s premiership ‘not sustainable’
Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is not sustainable beyond a few months and there is likely to be another British national election within the next year, Citi Bank said in a research note.
“We continue to think that her premiership is not sustainable beyond a few months, perhaps a year at most, and will be under pressure in the face of contentious parliamentary votes from the very beginning,” Citi said.
“Our base case remains that we will have a Conservative leadership contest followed by a new general election within the next 12 months,” the bank said.

Source: Arab News