TUSK – UK WILL BECOME A “SECOND RATE PLAYER” AFTER IT LEAVES THE EU

Britain will lose influence in international affairs and become a “second-rate player” after it leaves the European Union, European Council President Donald Tusk said yesterday.

Backers and leaders of Britain’s 2016 vote to exit the EU, the world’s largest trading bloc, say that the UK – the world’s fifth largest economy – will achieve a new global status once the UK is unshackled from EU rules.

Tusk said only a united Europe could confront an assertive China and play an effective global role.

“I have heard repeatedly from Brexiteers that they wanted to leave the European Union to make the United Kingdom global again, believing that only alone, it can truly be great” Tusk made his comments in a speech at the College of Europe in the Belgian city of Bruges.

“But the reality is exactly the opposite. Only as part of a united Europe can the UK play a global role, only together can we confront, without any complexes, the greatest powers of this world. And the world knows it,” said Tusk, who has chaired EU summits for the past five years and been an influential voice in European politics” said Donald Tusk.

He went on to say “”I have heard the same in India, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa – that after its departure, the UK will become an outsider, a second-rate player.”