"If you turn the EU club into a prison, the desire to get out won’t diminish it will grow", says Jeremy Hunt

Foreign minister Jeremy Hunt told the European Union on Sunday that punishing Britain in Brexit talks would fuel the desire of other states to break away from the bloc.

"At the moment you seem to think the way to keep the club together is to punish a member who leaves," he said at the governing Conservative Party's annual conference in Birmingham.

"The lesson from history is clear: if you turn the EU club into a prison, the desire to get out won't diminish it will grow, and we won't be the only prisoner that will want to escape."