Red lines are hindering Britain getting an EU deal like the one Canada is set for - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Peter Packham, Chair, Leeds for Europe, Roundhay, Leeds.

Recently, Martin J Phillips writes of the EU's enthusiasm for offering Canada 'associate membership' and complains Britain wasn't offered a similar deal (The Yorkshire Post, September 23).

Firstly, we should note that preliminary discussions between Canada and the European Union have barely begun: even they don’t know what ‘associate membership’ will eventually mean.

Secondly, Mr Phillips forgets that it was the UK Government’s own inflexible "red lines" that blocked a deep European partnership – first by the Conservatives and then the Labour Party.

Theresa “Brexit Means Brexit” May was the first Prime Minister to rule out membership of the Single Market – even though such a “Norway-style” deal was proposed by 2016 Leave campaigners.

So, most importantly, why should Britain now aspire to an inferior “Canada-style” deal?

Whatever "associate membership" ultimately means for Canada, it will undoubtedly be a second-best arrangement when compared to the gold standard of full EU membership (or even Norway’s current arrangements).

It is a sensible life-raft for a nation 3,000 miles away facing US tariffs, but it will never provide the frictionless, borderless trade that European nations enjoy.

Why should Yorkshire businesses and citizens settle for second best when we are geographically and historically positioned to have the best?