The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Brexit

  • `Let’s come together,’ May makes Brexit appeal to party

    Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday called on her party to unite behind her plan to leave the European Union, making a direct appeal to critics by saying their desire for a free trade deal was at the heart of her own Brexit proposals.

    At the start of what is set to be one of the Conservative Party’s stormiest annual conferences, May’s plans were once again attacked by two former ministers, with former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, calling them “deranged”.

    Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in over 40 years, the debate over how to leave the bloc is still raging in the center-right Conservative Party.

    May’s already fragile leadership was put under further pressure this month when the EU rejected parts of the so-called Chequers plan.

    However, she put a positive spin on those talks, saying she was ready to consider to the EU’s concerns.

    “My message to my party is let’s come together and get the best deal for Britain.

    “At the heart of the Chequers plan is a free trade deal, a free trade area and frictionless trade.

    “Chequers, at the moment is the only plan on the table that delivers on the Brexit vote and also delivers for the people of Northern Ireland,” May said.

    She has shown little sign of shifting away from her Chequers plan, named after her country residence where she hashed out an agreement on Brexit with her ministers in July, in spite of growing criticism that her proposals offer the worst of all worlds.

    Johnson, who quit May’s cabinet after Chequers was agreed, called her plans “deranged” and attacked the prime minister for not believing in Brexit.

    “Unlike the prime minister I campaigned for Brexit, I fought for this; I believe in it and I think it’s the right thing for our country.

    “I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016,” Johnson, the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed May, told the Sunday Times newspaper.

    Davis, who like Johnson resigned in protest said her plan was “just wrong”, but he also said he thought it was 80-90 per cent likely that the government would strike an exit deal with the EU.

    May’s team hoped the party’s conference would give her a platform to renew her pledge to help those people who are “just about managing”, trying to pull the focus away from Brexit and on to a domestic agenda.

    However, her first announcement, for an additional levy on foreign home buyers, did little to reset the conversation, with Sunday dominated again with Brexit, a possible leadership campaign and the prospect of an early election.

    Johnson’s interview in the Sunday Times was seen by many in the party to be the start of a campaign to unseat May, something that angered some Conservatives who are critical of the former foreign minister.

    May refused to be drawn on his comments, and did not refer to him by name in a lengthy interview with the BBC; however, her response was sharp.

    “I do believe in Brexit, but crucially I believe in delivering Brexit in a way that respects the vote.

    “In a way that delivers on the vote of the British people while also protecting our union, protecting jobs and ensuring that we make a success of Brexit for the future,” she said.

    Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said she still believed May could still manage to win a deal with the EU.

    Her party chairman, Brandon Lewis, said he believed May could lead into the next election, due in 2022.

    Davidson told Sky News that the EU summit in Salzburg had actually “slightly cleared the air actually, we know that officials are working very closely together.”

    “I think there is still a basis there for a deal to be done,” Davidson noted.

  • May: Britain committed to free trade with Kenya after Brexit

    Britain is committed to free trade with Kenya after it leaves the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday on a visit to Nairobi.

    May, speaking on the third stop of a trip to Africa, said she would want Britain to become the biggest investor on the continent out of the world’s richest nations.

    “As Britain prepares to leave the European Union we are committed to a smooth transition that ensures continuity in our trading relationship with Kenya, ensuring Kenya retains its duty free quota free access to the UK market.”

    May also announced Britain would set up a cyber-center in Nairobi to help authorities fight online child sex abuse by tracking the sharing of abusive images on the internet.

    The EU is currently Britain’s biggest trading partner. Skeptics say closer ties and more trade with Africa will do little to offset the economic impact of Brexit.

    Total trade with Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, the three nations on her tour this week, amounted to just over 13 billion pounds in 2016, official British figures show, compared with 554 billion pounds of trade with the EU that year.

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    The prime minister has used her first official visit to the region of more than one billion people to stress that Britain’s relationship with former colonies, including Kenya and other African nations, is increasingly focused on private investment, not on aid.

    In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous nation, May also promised closer commercial ties and promoted the longstanding presence of British companies in the country.

    Britain is Kenya’s largest trading partner and a major market for its exports of cut flowers. The rapidly expanding agriculture sector is Kenya’s biggest foreign exchange earner and a big source of jobs.

    Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking alongside May at a news conference, said he welcomed her assurance that Kenyan duty free exports would continue after Brexit and said Kenya would be pressing for an increase in exports.

    Kenyatta said two agreements signed on Thursday-one to enhance military cooperation, the other for Britain to return assets and proceeds of corruption to Kenya- indicated the close ties between the two countries.
    Kenyatta, who was re-elected for a second term after a bloody and prolonged elections season, said his government’s fight against graft was important for national unity and his legacy.

    Corruption drains billions of dollars from the state every year in Kenya, and foreign businessmen complain it is hard to get things done without paying bribes.

    Margaret Thatcher was the last British prime minister to visit Kenya, in 1988.

  • Brexit plan will kill U.S trade deal – Trump

    United States President, Donald Trump, has said the United Kingdom would “probably not” get a trade deal with America, if the prime minister’s Brexit plan goes ahead.

    He told The Sun the PM’s plan would “probably kill the deal” as it would mean the U.S “would be dealing with the European Union” instead of with the UK.

    Downing Street has not yet reacted to Mr. Trump’s remarks, the BBC reports.

    Prime Minister Theresa May has been making the case for a U.S free trade deal with Mr. Trump, on his first UK visit as president.

    She said Brexit was an “unprecedented opportunity” to create growth in the UK and U.S.

    Mr. Trump also said former Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson – who disagrees with the PM on Brexit and resigned this week – would make a “great prime minister,” adding “I think he’s got what it takes.”

    In his interview, he also renewed his criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan over last year’s terror attacks in London, saying he had done “a terrible job.”

    It comes ahead of a day of planned and widespread, anti-Trump protests across the UK, including one in Parliament Square which involves a giant inflatable of Mr. Trump as a baby.

    Some pro-Trump events are also taking place.

     

  • British foreign secretary quits amid Brexit crisis

    The British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has resigned from the position amid a growing political crisis over the United Kingdom’s Brexit strategy.

    He is the second senior cabinet minister to quit within hours following Brexit Secretary David Davis’s exit, the BBC reports.

    His departure came shortly before Prime Minister Theresa May is due to address Parliament about her new Brexit plan, which has angered many Tory MPs.

    In a statement, No 10 thanked Mr. Johnson for his work and said a replacement would be announced shortly.

    The BBC says Mr. Johnson’s exit had turned an “embarrassing and difficult situation for Mrs. May into potentially a full-blown crisis.”

     

  • Brexit Secretary David Davis resigns

    Brexit Secretary, David Davis, who has been leading United Kingdom negotiations to leave the European Union, has resigned from government.

    He told the BBC that he was no longer the best person to deliver the British Prime Minister, Theresa May’s Brexit plan – agreed by the cabinet on Friday – as he did not “believe” in it.

    He said the “career-ending” decision was a personal one but he felt the UK was “giving away too much and too easily” to the EU in the negotiations.

    Mrs. May said she did not agree but thanked him for his work.

    The resignation is a blow to Mrs. May as she seeks to win over Eurosceptic MPs to her proposed Brexit vision.

    The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 after a referendum was held in 2016, but the two sides have yet to agree how trade will work between the UK and the EU afterwards.

    There have been differences within the Conservative Party over how far the UK should prioritise the economy by compromising on issues such as leaving the remit of the European Court of Justice and ending free movement of people.

  • British PM secures cabinet support for Brexit plan

    The cabinet has reached a “collective” agreement on the basis of the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the European Union after Brexit, Theresa May has said.

    Ministers have signed up to a plan to create a free trade area for industrial and agricultural goods with the bloc, based on a “common rule book.”

    They also supported what could amount to a “combined customs territory.”

    The BBC reports that the plan, agreed after a 12-hour meeting, would “anger many Tory Brexiteers.”

    The BBC says said the prime minister had “picked a side” by opting for a closer relationship with the EU than many colleagues desired – and she now had to sell it to her party and the other European leaders.

     

  • British PM rejects EU’s Brexit draft

    British PM rejects EU’s Brexit draft

    The British Prime Minister, Mrs. Theresa May, said on Wednesday the European Union proposal for the Northern Ireland border threatens the “constitutional integrity” of the United Kingdom.

    The EU’s draft legal agreement proposes a “common regulatory area” after Brexit on the island of Ireland – in effect keeping Northern Ireland in a customs union – if no other solution is found, the BBC reports.

    Mrs. May said “no UK prime minister could ever agree” to this.

    The EU said the “backstop” option is not intended to “provoke” the UK.

    Unveiling the draft agreement, EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, urged the UK to come up with alternatives.

    He said the text was “no surprise” and was just a legally-worded assessment of what had been agreed so far.

    Mr. Barnier said the document contained “concrete and realistic solutions” in relation to the question of how to avoid a hard border once the UK leaves the EU’s customs union.

    Other options – a UK-EU deal that means checks are not needed and technological solutions – will also be explored.

    Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs. May said she would be making her opposition to the “backstop” option “crystal clear” to the EU Commission.

  • Brexit talks move to next stage – EU

    Brexit talks move to next stage – EU

    European Union (EU) leaders have agreed to move Brexit talks on to the second phase but called for “further clarity” from the United Kingdom about the future relationship it wants.

    The first issue to be discussed, early next year, will be the details of an expected two-year transition period after the UK’s exit in March 2019.

    Talks on trade and security co-operation are set to follow in March.

    British Prime Minister,Theresa May, hailed an “important step” on the road but Germany’s Angela Merkel said it would get “even tougher.”

    The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, broke the news that the 27 EU leaders were happy to move on to phase two after they met in Brussels.

    He congratulated Mrs. May on reaching this stage and said the EU would begin internal preparations for the next phase right now as well as “exploratory contacts with the UK to get more clarity on their vision.”

    While securing a deal in time for the UK’s exit in March 2019 was realistic, he suggested that the next phase would be “more challenging and more demanding.”

     

  • EU commission president believes ‘breakthrough’ achieved in Brexit talks

    EU commission president believes ‘breakthrough’ achieved in Brexit talks

    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday that he believed that a breakthrough had been achieved in terms of the Brexit deal with the UK.

    “I believe we made the breakthrough we needed,” Juncker said after meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

    He added that May told him that the new text had the backing of the UK government.

    The European Commission president noted that progress was reached also in terms of the divorce bill and the EU institution was ready for the second phase of Brexit talks.

    May welcomed the prospect of moving to the next phase of Brexit talks with Brussels in order to discuss future London’s relations with the EU.
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    “I very much welcome the prospect of moving ahead to the next phase to talk about trade and security and to discuss the positive and ambitious future relationship that is in all of our interests,” May said at a news conference in Brussels.

    May arrived in Brussels to meet with Juncker and Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier for a final round of negotiations within the first phase of Brexit talks. (Sputnik/NAN)

  • UK suggests ‘temporary customs union’

    UK suggests ‘temporary customs union’

    The United Kingdom has set out the “ambitious new customs arrangement” it wants to secure with the European Union after Brexit.

    Ministers said the plans would mean the “freest and most frictionless possible trade” with the rest of Europe.

    This could include a “temporary customs union” after Brexit to prevent border problems as the UK leaves the EU.

    Businesses have called for clarity since the UK said it was leaving the customs union – the EU’s tariff-free trading area – as part of Brexit, the BBC reports.

    The customs union document is the first of a series of papers to be published by the UK government on key negotiation issues.

    On Wednesday it is expected to set out proposals for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

    The government said the interim arrangements would mean businesses would only have to adjust once to the new arrangements.

    All of this will have to be negotiated with the EU – and the two sides have not yet even started discussing trade matters.