Thread by @fascinatorfun

FactCheck: we can’t find evidence that Dominic Raab warned of no-deal Brexit – Channel 4 News

FactCheck has searched the Vote Leave website, Mr Raab’s personal site, various BBC web pages, online newspaper archives, YouTube and elsewhere.

channel4.com/news/factcheck…

2/. We’ve listened to as many clips as we can find of interviews given by Mr Raab and Mr Gove between February 2016, when the EU referendum campaign unofficially began

3/. We can’t find an interview where Mr Raab warned explicitly about the possibility of a no-deal Brexit during the referendum campaign.

4/ The closest thing we can find are two references to the possibility of the EU refusing to agree trading terms with Britain out of spite – but in both cases Mr Raab was at pains to point out that he did not think this was a realistic outcome of negotiations.

5/ In an article for the Daily Telegraph published on 23 February 2016, Mr Raab wrote: “The Remain campaign assert the EU would cut off its nose to spite its face, vindictively defying its own interests by shutting Britain out of its markets altogether.

6/. “That’s not remotely credible. And, if it were, fear of their spite is hardly a compelling reason to stay in the EU.”

The backstop architecture was a U.K. proposal. So hardly spite.

In fact tipping it over, as RAAB is suggesting looks very UK spiteful. Bully boy fails.

7/ “In most of the interviews he gave during the referendum campaign, Mr Raab repeated the idea that the EU would allow Britain to trade with the bloc on favourable terms because it would be in Europe’s economic interests.

8/ In an BBC interview in April 2016, he said: “I think we would not see any trade barriers go up because we’re the fifth biggest economy in the world…

9/. “Look at the options being put out there – Swiss, Norwegian, Turkish,” he said “…We’re very well placed and mutual self-interest suggests we’d cut a very good deal. And it’s certainly not in the Europeans’ interest to erect trade barriers.”

10/. On several occasions, Dominic Raab specifically shot down suggestions that Europe might introduce tariffs or other barriers to free trade – which will happen under a no-deal scenario.

11/.On Question Time on 03 March 2016, Mr Raab: “We heard this week the suggestion that we’d be locked out of trade. Actually, if you look what Britain’s former ambassador to the EU.. said, there’s no doubt we’d keep having a strong trading relationship with the EU if we were out

12/. 2 days before the vote, he wrote: “Of course we’ll continue trading with the EU. Only a suicidal German chancellor or French president would go into their 2017 elections promising to put thousands of German car workers & French farmers out of jobs by hiking tariffs with GB

13/. 1st explicit mention of No deal? 2 days AFTER the ref.