LONDON—British Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said on Monday that he was confident that the United Kingdom will make progress and eventually clinch a Brexit deal with the European Union.
“We keep on negotiating in good faith, we try and get the best deal we can, but we are ready for all eventualities,” Raab told TalkRadio. “We‘ll keep negotiating in good faith, I’m confident we’ll get there.”
However, Raab said it was important not to overreact to the “stubborn” tone struck by Brussels and that some setbacks were to be expected.
“These blips in the world, they’re blown a little bit out of proportion, but we double down, we don’t throw our toys out the pram, hold our nerve, keep our cool,” Raab said.
“But at the same we need to be ready for the possibility ... that the ambitions that we are bringing to these negotiations to try and get a win-win deal isn’t matched by the other side and it does take two to tango.”
Sterling jumped above $1.31, leaving it up around 0.5 percent on the day, as Raab spoke.
Raab said such a stance made it more likely they would fail to get any deal.
“What they (the EU) need to see is some unity of purpose from the UK which is why all this Labour nonsense about a second referendum is not only undemocratic but it’s the last thing we should be doing right now with our EU partners because it encourages them to offer us a lousy deal which makes a no deal more likely,” he said.
“The vast majority, the silent majority in this country just want us to get on with it and that’s what we’re doing.”