Hard Brexit highly damaging, says former top civil servant
by Michael Savage and Daniel Boffey from on (#38CAC)
No bespoke trade deal can be as good as the single market, says Sir Martin Donnelly
There is no trade deal on offer from the European Union that will stop Britain taking a major economic hit after Brexit, the government's former top trade official has warned.
In a direct warning to MPs, Sir Martin Donnelly, the chief civil servant in Liam Fox's Department for International Trade until earlier this year, states that leaving the single market in favour of negotiating a long-winded, Canada-style trade deal will "damage UK competitiveness and leave us with less investment, lower living standards and long queues at the border".
Related: We shouldn't even be contemplating leaving the single market
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