We will always be committed to promoting as close a relationship with the E.U. as possible.
Only the U.K. can trigger Article 50. And in my judgement, we should only do that when there is a clear view about what new arrangements we are seeking with our European neighbours.
Our problem as a country is that most of us do not want to join the euro, and we wish to stay aloof from the common frontiers of the free-travel Schengen area. This makes our relationship with the E.U. fraught with tension and trouble.
Britain needs a good Brexit deal to safeguard jobs, security and trade and to build a new partnership with the E.U. Achieving this will be fiendishly difficult.
I believed and hoped that we would be able to secure a deal with Europe which would enable us to amend free movement.
Of course, the E.U. were never going to welcome Brexit. Some sour grapes were inevitable. That's why we worked hard to leave on positive terms, extending the arm of friendship.
The Tories must stop focusing on their ideological obsession with a hard Brexit and their internal party divisions and start focusing on what is best for our country and our economy. Their absurd proposal that the U.K. should become the E.U.'s tariff collector is neither practical nor palatable across the Channel.
After Brexit, we need to design a modern and fair immigration system which attracts talent and investment from the E.U. and the rest of the world.
