Sir Ed Davey called for Britain to have a "closer relationship to our European colleagues" as Friday marked the fifth anniversary of Brexit. "We need to get rid of the red tape and the barriers that businesses face," Mr Davey added. Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The Liberal Democrats are going to lead the debate in Britain to have a closer relationship
00:03with our European colleagues. It's good for our trade, our economy, it's good for our
00:07defence and our security. And a customs union, which I've called for, the Liberal Democrats
00:12are championing, would be great for growth, far better than anything the government has
00:16announced to date. We all need to get rid of those trade barriers that the Conservatives
00:20put up that have so hit our small and medium-sized businesses, our exporters. That's the way
00:25to grow our economy, by having that closer relationship with Europe.
00:28The Tories made a complete hash of it, soured our relationship with our European friends
00:32and Labour's, frankly, being very timid. We need to be more bold and ambitious. We need
00:36to get rid of the red tape, get rid of the barriers that businesses face. When you're
00:41trying to manufacture a good these days, it often crosses borders several times and I'm
00:45afraid the red tape is getting in the way. And that means we're poorer as a country,
00:50people's wages are lower, prices are higher. So if we want to grow our economy and have
00:54higher living standards, we've got to re-embrace closer trading relationships with our European
00:58neighbours.