(Bloomberg) -- UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering options to remove many trade barriers with the European Union, including a potential Swiss-style relationship that would risk angering many on the right wing of his Conservative Party, the Times reported. 

Switzerland has access to the bloc through a series of bilateral agreements but that deal requires a more liberal attitude to migration from the EU than the party’s hardcore Brexit faction would be prepared to accept, the newspaper reported Saturday.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday morning, UK Health and Social Care secretary Steve Barclay said he didn’t recognize the report and that he would not support such an agreement.

He added that it was “absolutely important” to take advantage of “the Brexit freedoms we have” and maximize opportunities in high growth areas such as green industries and life sciences.

“Any approach requiring the UK to align with EU rules to get trade benefits, whether as part of a Swiss-style approach or any other, would be quite unacceptable,” the Times cited Lord Frost, the UK’s former chief Brexit negotiator, as saying Friday. 

Frost and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruled out such an approach with they drew up the UK’s negotiating mandate in 2020. The UK began working on a new trade deal with Switzerland in April 2022, when Johnson was still prime minister.

 

--With assistance from Loukia Gyftopoulou.

(Updates with Steve Barclay quotes on third and fourth paragraph.)

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