Britain could still choose to abandon Brexit and remain a member of the EU on its current terms, the French Europe minister has said.
Nathalie Loiseau said on Thursday that “door would remain open” to the UK changing course.
“We were not the ones who wanted to diverge from the United Kingdom. It was the British people who decided to leave the European Union,” she told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.
Asked if this could be on the same membership terms as the UK currently enjoys, Loiseau added: “Of course.”
She also warned that the UK would suffer more than the EU in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.
Theresa May yesterday insisted the British public should take “comfort” from government preparations for such an eventuality, after it emerged plans were being developed to stockpile food and blood.
Health secretary Matt Hancock told MPs on Tuesday his department was working with the industry “for the potential need for stockpiling in the event of a no-deal Brexit”.
“This includes the chain of medical supplies, vaccines, medical devices, clinical consumables, blood products,” he said.
Raab also told MPs yesterday he was working to “make sure that there’s adequate food supplies” should the UK exit the EU without a deal.
He will hold talks with the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Brussels today at the end of the latest round of Brexit negotiations.
The Brexit secretary has promised to bring “as much energy as I can” to the talks.
Boris Johnson has fired another broadside at May’s Brexit plans, branding them unworkable and calling on fellow Tory MPs to “chuck Chequers”.
The former foreign secretary – who walked out of the Cabinet days after signing up to the package at the prime Minister’s country residence – said May’s blueprint would leave the UK in “vassalage, satrapy, colony status” to the EU.