UK's Hammond, Davis go cap in hand to Germany for financial services deal
UK Chancellor Philip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis called on Germany to help forge a deal that would protect Britain's precious financial services sector after leaving the EU next year.
The pair arrived in Germany on Thursday on a mission to woo German business leaders. The EU has said financial services cannot be included in any final Brexit deal as long as the UK insists on leaving the single market.
In an article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, they repeated the UK's wish to have a special deal which could be “the most ambitious in the world”.
The added that it should “cover the length and breadth of our economies including the service industries — and financial services”.
“It makes no sense to either Germany or Britain to put in place unnecessary barriers to trade in goods and services,” the said.
“The 2008 global financial crisis proved how fundamental financial services are to the real economy, and how easily contagion can spread from one economy to another without global and regional safeguards in place.”
Europe and the UK, had worked hard “to make sure such a catastrophe doesn’t happen again” by tightening financial regulation, the added.
“That work shouldn’t end because the UK is leaving the EU. On the contrary, we must redouble our collective effort to ensure that we do not put that hard-earned financial stability at risk,”
However, the Financial Times reported that the EU had contacted British firms, including in pharmaceuticals, haulage and air travel, that their operating licences for the EU will lapse after Brexit if there was no final deal.
In a separate development, the UK's National Audit Office confirmed it would investigate Britain's £39bn Brexit withdrawal payment, also known as the "divorce bill".
The spending watchdog had been asked to look at the payment by parliament's influential Treasury select committee.