The ambassador warn the UK’s role on the international stage would be diminished under a no-deal scenario (Picture: Getty/Reuters/EPA)

A no-deal Brexit would result in an ‘unprecedented – and self-inflicted – diminution of Britain’s international influence’, a group of former ambassadors have warned.

Writing to the Times, the ambassadors are urging Boris Johnson to use this weekend’s G7 summit in Biarritz, France, to change direction and ‘signal a different approach’.

They say that a close relationship with member states is crucial if Britain is to continue to advance its own interests on the global stage.

The ambassadors wrote: ‘We need a foreign policy based on long-term UK interests and a strong economy, and that requires close relationships with our European neighbours.




‘No-deal represents the biggest unilateral abandonment of those interests in modern British history.

‘It should not be allowed to happen.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay confirmed that Britain would not be nominating a new candidate for EU commissioner (Picture: Reuters)

‘We hope the Prime Minister uses this G7 meeting to signal a different approach.’

They added: ‘This year’s G7 summit takes place against the backdrop of an impending no-deal Brexit that would result in an unprecedented – and self-inflicted – diminution of Britain’s international influence.

‘The UK has successfully used its role within the EU to drive forward global action.

‘Take the global financial crisis in 2008, in which Britain secured an EU consensus on the way forward before selling it to the Americans and others in the G20.

The prime minister is being urged to change course at the G7 meetings in France (Picture: AP)

‘On climate change, the common European position was crucial in securing international support.’

It comes as the Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay, said the UK would not be nominating a new candidate for EU commissioner.

Other EU member states have already begun considering and discussing nominations for the new EU Commission.

The prime minister has been warned that leaving without a deal would massively harm Britain’s national interests (Picture: Chesnot/Getty Images)

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) has given Boris Johnson a month to come up with an alternative to the Irish backstop (Picture: EPA)

However, Mr Barclay said it would be a ‘distraction’ to nominate someone for the post.

He added: ‘We are leaving the EU on October 31. As a departing member state, we will not be involved in the new Commission so it would be a distraction to nominate a new commissioner.’

The government has also stopped sending officials to meetings in Brussels, so that they can spend ‘more time’ focusing on Brexit.

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