Brexit isn't like just leaving a golf club, EU court judge warns

Britain’s exit from the European Union shouldn’t be likened to leaving a golf club, the UK’s judge at the bloc’s second-highest court has said, pointing to the "extraordinary turbulence" his country is suffering.

"We’re told that Brexit, just leaving, will be like leaving a golf club because the showers aren’t clean enough," Ian Forrester, a Scottish judge at the EU General Court in Luxembourg, told a legal event in London on Wednesday night. "I don’t agree with that proposition."

"Our country is going through a period of extraordinary turbulence and uncertainty," said Forrester, adding that Brexit shouldn’t happen "until a number of matters have been addressed which are deeply important for our daily lives."

These go from people’s movement rights to how extraditions and judicial cooperation will be handled in the future, to international trade and labour law issues, he said.

His comments come as UK and European negotiators are working to clinch a Brexit deal, while Prime Minister Theresa May plans a last-minute dash to Brussels. They also come just days before the EU’s top court is set to review whether Article 50, which triggered the UK’s two-year Brexit process last year, can be reversed unilaterally.

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