'Don't bully us'
Britain takes new combative tone to Brexit talks
♦ Ministers seek unity at party conference
♦ Britain's top diplomat Hunt under fire over EU-USSR comparison
Britain cannot be bullied, Brexit minister Dominic Raab said yesterday, sharpening the government's criticism of the European Union for taunting Prime Minister Theresa May and souring difficult Brexit talks.
May's ministers have come out one by one at their party's annual conference in the city of Birmingham to warn the EU that they will embrace leaving without a deal if the bloc fails to show "respect" in the talks to end Britain's membership.
Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country's biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, May faces growing criticism over her proposals.
Party unity is on ministers' minds, and they are encouraging the faithful to direct their anger at the EU rather than at their prime minister, who some eurosceptic Conservatives accuse of leading Britain towards a "Brexit in name only".
Raab said he had called on the EU to match the "ambition and pragmatism" Britain had put forward with May's Chequers proposals, named after her country residence where an agreement with her ministers was hashed out in July, reported Reuters.
"What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our country's interests," Raab said.
Meanwhile, Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt came under fire after comparing the EU's attitude towards Brexit to the Soviet Union, reported AFP.
In remarks directed at Brussels, Hunt said: "You seem to think the way to keep the club together is to punish a member who leaves...EU was set up to protect freedom. It was the Soviet Union that stopped people leaving."
His remarks were quickly denounced by two former civil service heads of the Foreign Office.