Politics

Duncan Smith says UK has upper hand because Brexit talks will be held in London

Iain Duncan Smith has claimed the UK will have the upper hand in Brexit talks because they will be held in London. 

The Brexiteer MP said having negotiations take place in the UK rather than Brussels will “put the power back in London’s hands”.

He also said EU calls for clarity were “signs of weaknesses” and that since Boris Johnson won his landslide 80-seat majority in last year’s general election, it is “finally dawning on the EU” that the government will “for the most part get whatever it wants done”.

Asked by talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer whether what desk is used really mattered, he compared it to the end of Vietnam war.

“Yes, yes, they matter massively. 


“You may remember at the end of the Vietnam war… negotiations to end the war they spent about two years or whatever discussing the shape of the table, it mattered that much who people sat next to, and who they didn’t sit next to”. 

He continued: “So these things do matter because at the end of the day your power and potency in a negotiation is a matter of lots of different things and one of them is a demonstration that we are different from what we were.

“We were very weak before, we’re now much, much stronger and it is Europe I think that is somewhat more weak.”

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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