'There is real fear in EU that Britain will BEAT them' IDS DESTROYS Brussels bully tactics

The former Conservative Party leader said that Britain had to stop “begging” their European counterparts and start demanding instead.

In a fierce rebuke to the state of the Brexit talks, Iain Duncan Smith said the recent hostile tactics from Brussels was an attempt “to hide” their own fear of the UK beating them.

There is growing concern among Brexiteers that Britain has given up too many red lines and allowed the EU to dictate the talks. 

The MP went onto urge Theresa May and her cabinet to play their cards and gain the upperhand at last in the negoitations.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sky News, the Tory Brexiteer said it was time for Britain to be tough with the EU. 

He explained: ” I think the EU is behaving as though they want to somehow bully us and the reason for that is quite clear.

“If you peel away all the nonsense that Barnier talks almost all the time as far as I can make out, what you end up with is a real fear in the EU that the UK will be a competitor, and a rather good competitor, to the EU.

“That means they are worried and when they’re worried they hide it by a lot of blather which is going on about what they demand. 

“The UK has got to recognise that we have got some quite serious cards to play and they absolutely do not want us to walk away with no deal at this point because no deal would mean we would be completely free to set whatever arrangements we want around trade and regulations and as we know, lots of countries in the EU are very worried about that.

“So we need to stop looking like we constantly beg them to give us an answer about what they want.”

The Conservative MP continued: “The point I am simply making is that as the single largest trading partner for the EU, and that is what we are, fifth largest economy in the world, we need to put our foot down a bit more and say do you know what, we’re not even going to get to this.

“If we don’t get to this it’s your fault, your problem but give us a call when you want to talk about it further.”

The strong words from Mr Smith came at the end of a fractious week between the EU and British negoitation teams.

A clash over the Galileo sat-nav project intensified, with the UK demanding the EU hand back its £1bn investment after the Europeans threatened to shut the British out of the scheme.

Sky News’ host Ridge pointed out that the EU have been taking “an extraordinarily tough line on things like Galileo and the European Arrest Warrant and not discussing trade until we’ve sorted out the divorce”.

The Tory stalwart also gave his backing to Theresa May, after he called on MPs circulating leadership contests “to shut up”. 

He predicted that the Conservatives will sweep towards a strong majority in the next election if the Tories are seen as the Brexit party.