Jeremy Corbyn addressed the CBI and said Labour would not be approaching negotiations with the EU on the basis of threats. He would not be threatening to turn the UK into Singapore. He said there must be a sense of urgency. The deal on offer is not acceptable. He added that the government should recognise that, and go back to negotiate something that is more acceptable.
Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director general, said firms have made an offer to Labour – to work with business in a new partnership to solve the issues facing the UK and build a truly competitive and fair country. From rigid employment rules to blunt public ownership, the Labour approach sounds more command and control, than partnership. This is not the change that is needed. She also seemed to criticise Labour for not supporting the government’s Brexit deal
Meanwhile Sky News reported that a group of Brexiteers who went into Downing Street to lobby May over her draft deal before it is expected to be signed off on Sunday have left – without talking to journalists.
Spain’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, on Monday called on the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, to modify an article about the negotiations that will see the establishment of the future relationship between the UK and EU. “We want the interpretation to be clear in that text that the negotiations between the United Kingdom and the EU will not apply to Gibraltar,” Borrell said following a meeting in Brussels of EU ministers for European affairs.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday she wanted any post-Brexit transition phase to have ended by the time the country is due to hold a national election in 2022. Britain’s implementation, or transition phase, is expected to run until the end of 2020 but the European Union’s negotiator Michel Barnier has said it could be extended to allow details of the future relationship to be agreed. “I think it is important that in delivering for the British people we are out of the implementation period before the next general election,” May said in a speech to business leaders in London.
EU ministers said that they generally approved of the draft divorce agreement reached last week, and that a blank in the document on the end-date for a possible extension of the status-quo transition period should be resolved before a summit on Sunday, Michel Barnier told a news conference after briefing the 27 national EU Ministers about the agreement.
“We are in fact at a decisive moment in this process; no one should lose sight of the progress that has been achieved in Brussels and in London,” Barnier said. “The deal is fair and balanced.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a day of reckoning on Monday as mutinous lawmakers try to trigger a no confidence vote over their opposition to her draft European Union divorce deal, a rebel member of her Conservative Party said.
“This is absolutely the day at which we stand at the bar of history on this,” Simon Clarke told the BBC, adding “this day must be the point at which … action is taken”, Reuters report.
“If we continue with this plan we are simply not going to have a government because the clear threat it poses to the integrity of the union is something which our colleagues the DUP will simply put up with,” he told BBC radio.
Clarke, who has submitted a letter of no confidence in the British leader, said every hour and every day that the Brexit deal was not rejected, was a day wasted on credible negotiations.
“It is quite clear to me that the captain is driving the ship at the rocks,” he said.
Meanwhile The Telegraph reports that Theresa May will confront the “gang of five” Cabinet Brexiteers on Monday by saying she will not renegotiate the EU Withdrawal Agreement, in a move that risks prompting fresh ministerial resignations.
The Prime Minister will use a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to say the terms of the UK’s divorce from the EU have been “agreed in full” and the only thing left to discuss is the future trade deal.
The BBC adds that Theresa May is set to renew her efforts to sell her draft Brexit withdrawal agreement – saying it will stop EU migrants “jumping the queue”. She will say migration will become skills-based, with Europeans no longer prioritised over “engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi”. The prime minister will also insist to business leaders that her withdrawal deal has been “agreed in full”. It comes as some Tory MPs continue to press for late changes to the deal.
POLITICO reports that the business secretary of Britain’s opposition Labour party said the EU would be willing to renegotiate the proposed withdrawal agreement with her party. “The EU have renegotiated many deals in the past and I think to suggest they wouldn’t renegotiate would be wrong. I mean, the Lisbon Treaty and CETA are just two examples,” Rebecca Long-Bailey told BBC Radio’s Today program Monday.
Long-Bailey said businesses are “certainly not getting the permanent customs union that [they] have been demanding,” adding that Labour would not support the deal as it stands.
“The customs union itself is not the silver bullet. We also need a deal that ensures a strong single market relationship,” she said.
But when pressed on whether this would mean accepting EU immigration rules, she said: “We’re not going to be able to accept full freedom of movement.”
The Dutch and Irish prime ministers, Mark Rutte and Leo Varadkar, have also said that major changes to the 585-page agreement would not be possible.
Also speaking to the Today program, former European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said: “There is almost no room for renegotiating the deal.” “On the main parameters there will be no room for manoeuvre,” he said, and suggested the only thing that could be added was “more precise wording.”
RTE reports that the Brexit transition period could be extended by two years under proposals suggested by the European Union’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, it has been reported. He is said to have proposed the extension in order to give more time for the UK to strike a full trade deal with the EU.
It would also give diplomats more time to find a means of avoiding a hard border in Ireland and avoid the use of the backstop.
Under the draft withdrawal agreement published last week, the transition period would begin when the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019 and run until 31 December 2020.
During the transition, EU law will continue to apply in the UK, which will continue to participate in the customs union and the single market.
There is a one-off option for the UK to seek an extension of the transition if negotiations on the future relationship are still continuing.
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier ruled out on Monday a renegotiation of the Brexit deal reached between the European Union and Britain to make it more palatable to British lawmakers opposed to the agreement. “I believe we need to stick with what we have (negotiated) and as such we will be strengthening Theresa May as she puts this result to a vote (in the British parliament),” Altmaier told ZDF public broadcaster.
Of the same argument was Germany’s European Affairs Minister Michael Roth. He said there will be no new negotiations on Britain’s departure from the European Union and the draft Brexit deal is better than a no-deal outcome.
Critics of British Prime Minister Theresa May should know that Britain’s negotiation position will not improve even with a new leader, Roth told Germany’s SWR broadcaster. “Ultimately I can only urge everyone to use reason and realize that no deal better than the one on the table can be reached,” he said.
Here are what the British Papers said
- The Financial Times reported the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier was willing to allow the Brexit transition period to go on until December 2022, which would also mean extended free movement of people.
- The Telegraph had a column by former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in which he labeled the draft Brexit deal “a total defeat” and called on the PM to scrap the Northern Irish backstop.
- The Express was supportive of May, saying she was championing a “Brexit deal for the people.”
BREXIT News Roundup is compiled by Diplomatique.Expert
