The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has played down speculation that the government could pay out large sums of money in return for access to the European single market as part of its Brexit deal.
David Davis, the Brexit secretary, said last week that the government would not rule out making future payments to the EU in order to secure favourable access to European markets. His remarks were endorsed by the prime minister’s spokeswoman and the chancellor, Philip Hammond.
But speaking on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Johnson refused to back the idea, describing it as “pure speculation”.
“That is obviously something that David Davis is considering but it doesn’t mean a decision has been taken … I am not going to get involved in the minutiae of our negotiating position before we trigger article 50.”
He said the UK could pay in for some elements of “European cooperation” in future, such as the Erasmus student exchange programme, but repeatedly failed to say it could include EU contributions for single market access.
Johnson also appeared to reiterate his opposition to the government’s policy of reducing net migration to the “tens of thousands”.
He said Brexit gave the UK the chance to become the leading advocate for global free trade and that should be the government’s focus.
“There are pressures around the world, people who want to pull up the drawbridge and we have got to fight against them and that is the way to global growth,” he said.
During questions in the House of Commons, the Labour MP Wayne David had asked Davis if he would “consider making any contribution in any shape or form for access to the single market”.
Davis said the government would look at the options during the article 50 process over the next two years. “The major criterion here is that we get the best possible access for goods and services to the European market,” he said. “And if that is included in what he is talking about, then of course we would consider it.”
