A Conservative MP has called on the UK government to ensure that the Crown Dependencies have free access to the British market after Brexit.

Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst), chairman of the Justice Committee, made the remarks during a debate about the Internal Market Bill, which received a second reading in the UK’s Parliament this week.

He said: ’I hope as we go forward that we will see what can be done to help other parts of the broader British family that would desire access to our new internal market - for example, the Crown Dependencies: the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

’Many of their financial sectors are importantly, and closely, linked to the city of London and the UK.’

Sir Robert added that there is a ’great desire’ to strengthen Crown Dependencies’ access to the UK in the wake of Brexit, and that ’free and unfettered access to the UK’ is something that should be explored on a reciprocal basis.

He came to prominence recently when he asked from Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis whether the Internal Market Bill would breach international law and Mr Lewis admitted that it would do so ’in a very specific and limited way’.