Schaeuble says brexit would shut UK out of EU trade zone

Berlin: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble yesterday issued a stark warning to Britain that it would face costly barriers to the European Union trade zone if it left the bloc.

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The comments by one of Europe’s most senior officials is a blow to Brexit supporters, who have argued that Britain could negotiate deals to access the single market similar to those in place for non-members Norway and Switzerland.

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“That won’t work,” the veteran minister told Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly, which plans to publish a German-English edition at home and in Britain with “Please don’t go!” on the cover.

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“That would require the country to follow the rules of a club which right now it wants to leave.” 

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European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker last month said that British “deserters will not be welcomed with open arms” by European partners if Britain votes to leave in the June 23 referendum, but Schaeuble’s intervention is the most explicit threat so far.

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Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott hit back, saying there was “no question about it, Britain will still have access to the single market. 

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“It would be perverse of the eurozone to try to create artificial barriers -- and would do far more damage to them than to anyone else,” he said.

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The EU accounts for 47 per cent of British exports and 54 percent of imports, according to latest government figures.

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With opinion polls on a knife-edge, senior figures in Britain’s opposition Labour party made an impassioned plea to stay in the EU amid fears their failure to get out the left-wing vote may result in a Brexit.

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is officially backing the “Remain” campaign but has been keeping a low profile.

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Former party leader Ed Miliband acknowledged in a BBC interview: “Some Labour voters don’t know where we stand at the moment.”

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Corbyn has refused to share a platform with Prime Minister David Cameron and there are concerns some Labour voters will abstain or back a Brexit to give the Conservative leader a bloody nose.

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But Miliband accused the “Leave” campaign, also backed by the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage, of “trying to perpetrate a fraud on Labour voters”.

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“They want to get out of the European Union not to improve workers’ rights but to sweep them away,” said Miliband, who stepped down after losing last year’s general election.