TheNewsGuru

Tag: BREXIT

  • Good Brexit is possible – Theresa May

    British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday said a good Brexit that would be of national interests is possible.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports May stated this while addressing the House of Commons following the publication of a draft agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

    “A good Brexit, in the national interests, is possible. We have persevered and made a major breakthrough. Voting against a deal would take us back to square one. If we get behind a deal we can bring our country back together. We can choose to leave with no deal, and there is no Brexit at all. We can choose to unite and support the best deal we can negotiate,” the Prime Minister said.

    May’s cabinet had on Wednesday met to discuss the terms of the withdrawal agreement, and since then a number of senior members of the government, including Brexit’s secretary, Dominic Raab, have resigned over the Prime Ministers proposals.

    The draft withdrawal agreement sets out the terms of the UK’s smooth and orderly exit from the European Union, including a protocol on Northern Ireland. It reflects agreement in principle between the UK and EU negotiating teams on the full legal text.

    “We were told we had a binary choice between Norway or Canada that we could not have a bespoke deal. But the outline is better than both of these. We were told we would be treated as a third country on security but this is beyond anything the EU has agreed with any other country,” May said, defending the draft agreement.

    She said in her statement to the Commons that the draft agreement by Cabinet on Wednesday was not a final agreement, but that it brings the UK “close to a Brexit deal”.

    Outlining the deal, May said: “It takes back control of our borders, laws and money. It protects jobs, security and the integrity of the United Kingdom, and it delivers in ways that many said could simply not be done.

    “We were told we had a binary choice between the model of Norway and the model of Canada, that we could not have a bespoke deal.

    “But the outline political declaration sets out an arrangement that is better for our country than both of these – a more ambitious free trade agreement than the EU has with any other country.

    “We were told we would be treated like any other third country on security co-operation. But the outline political declaration sets out a breadth and depth of co-operation beyond anything the EU has agreed with any other country”.

     

  • Britain’s work and pensions minister McVey quits over Brexit deal

    Britain Work and Pensions Minister, Esther McVey, quit Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet, the second senior minister to resign on Thursday over a Brexit deal agreed between London and Brussels.

    “The deal you put before the Cabinet yesterday does not honour the result of the referendum”, McVey wrote in a letter to May, joining Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab in quitting over May’s draft Brexit deal.

    May gained collective but not unanimous approval for her Brexit plan from senior ministers on Wednesday, and McVey said that the withdrawal agreement was not what Britons voted for when they chose to leave the EU in 2016.

    “It will be no good trying to pretend to (Britons) that this deal honours the result of the referendum when it is obvious to
    everyone it doesn’t,” she wrote.

    “The proposals put before Cabinet, which will soon be judged by the entire country, means handing over around 39 billion
    pounds to the EU without anything in return…

    “We have gone from no deal is better than a bad deal, to any deal is better than no deal.”

    The resignations of the senior ministers thrust the United Kingdom into a political crisis just as May was attempting to
    garner support for a Brexit deal which her opponents have warned could sink her premiership.

     

  • Dominic Raab resignation: Brexit Secretary’s letter to Theresa May

    Britain’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has resigned in protest at Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal for leaving the European Union.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Dominic Raab wrote May on Thursday saying he “cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU”.

    The letter reads: “It has been an honour to serve in your government as Justice Minister, Housing Minister and Brexit Secretary.

    “I regret to say that, following the Cabinet meeting yesterday on the Brexit deal, I must resign.

    “I understand why you have chosen to pursue the deal with the EU on the terms proposed, and I respect the different views held in good faith by all of our colleagues. For my part, I cannot support the proposed deal for two reasons.

    “First. I believe that the regulatory regime proposed for Northern Ireland presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom. Second, I cannot support an indefinite backstop arrangement, where the EU holds a veto over our ability to exit. The terms of the backstop amount to a hybrid of the EU Customs Union and Single Market obligations.

    “No democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit the arrangement.

    “That arrangement is now also taken as the starting point for negotiating the Future Economic Partnership. If we accept that, it will severely prejudice the second phase of negotiations against the UK.

    “Above all, I cannot reconcile the terms of the proposed deal with the promises we made to the country in our manifesto at the last election. This is, at its heart, a matter of public trust.

    “I appreciate that you disagree with my judgment on these issues. I have weighed very carefully the alternative courses of action which the government could take, on which I have previously advised.

    “Ultimately, you deserve a Brexit Secretary who can make the case for the deal you are pursuing with conviction. I am only sorry, in good conscience, that I cannot.

    “My respect for you, and the fortitude you have shown in difficult times, remains undimmed”.

     

  • Breaking: Britain’s Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab resigns

    Britain’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has resigned in protest at Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal for leaving the European Union.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Dominic Raab wrote May on Thursday saying he “cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU”.

     

     

    Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) lawmaker, Jeffrey Donaldson, had on Wednesday said Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal has the potential to break up the UK because it will treat Northern Ireland differently.

    One of 10 lawmakers who props up May’s government, Donaldson, added that he would not fear a new national election if a vote against May’s Brexit deal in parliament forced the country into another general vote.

    “From what we have seen and heard we do not believe this deal is the best deal. This deal has the potential to lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom and that is not something we can support,” Donaldson said.

    In his resignation letter, Raab said: “he cannot support May’s proposed deal for two reasons”.

     

  • Former British PM advises party to vote down May’s possible Brexit deal

    Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday said he would advise Labour Party lawmakers to vote down a Brexit divorce deal that Theresa May is trying to clinch with the EU.
    Nearly six months before the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU, there is little clarity about how the world’s fifth largest economy and its preeminent international financial centre will trade with the EU after Brexit.
    Blair, Labour prime minister from 1997 to 2007, said voters should be given another referendum on whether to stay in the EU as he saw deadlock in British politics.
    If May gets can strike a deal with the EU, she has to get it approved by the British parliament which is divided on Brexit.
    Labour has indicated it is likely to vote down any deal May brings back.
    When asked if he would advise Labour lawmakers to vote down a possible deal, Blair said: “It really is difficult.
    “The alternatives are all worse because if you do get to a blockage in parliament that is what opens up the possibility of going back to the people.
    “My view is this only happens if there is blockage in parliament.
    “However, if there is blockage in parliament it is a very simple argument. You say look we have been two and a bit years trying to reach an agreement that works, parliament is blocked.”
    Both opponents and supporters of Brexit agree that the divorce is Britain’s most significant geopolitical move since World War Two.
    However, they cast vastly different futures for the 2.9 trillion dollars UK economy and the world’s biggest trading bloc.
    Blair has repeatedly called for reversing Brexit, echoing other critics such as French President Emmanuel Macron and billionaire investor George Soros, who have suggested that Britain could still change its mind.
    Blair said that if Brexit did happen, the economic dislocation would be such that the United Kingdom would have to pitch to investors that it would be the best place in the world to do business.
     

  • Merkel welcomes Brexit progress, says devil is in detail

    Merkel welcomes Brexit progress, says devil is in detail

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on Wednesday welcomed progress in negotiations on a Brexit deal and said she wanted a close relationship with Britain after it leaves the European Union, especially on security matters.
    “I hope there is progress, apparently there is progress, but sometimes the devil is in the detail so everything is only worked out when it is all worked out,’’ she told a news conference after meeting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
    Earlier, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said a Brexit deal was “within reach’’ soon, even as he rammed home his insistence that Britain must accept possible checks on trade between its mainland and Northern Ireland.
    Merkel said the negotiations were in a decisive phase and the sooner they were concluded the better.
    “We agree that we want friendly relations with Britain, above all very, very close cooperation in the security policy area,” she said.
    Rutte told the joint news conference: “It is important that Brexit happens as orderly as possible’’.
     

  • 40 UK lawmakers willing to vote down Brexit deal

    At least 40 lawmakers in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party are willing to vote down her possible Brexit deal if it leaves European Union (EU), a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.
    A lawmaker, Steve Baker told BBC radio that there are possibilities for the 40 lawmakers to vote down the Brexit if it leaves the United Kingdom ‘half in and half out’ of the EU.
    “My estimate is that there are at least 40 colleagues who are not going to accept a ‘half in, half out’ Chequers deal or indeed a backstop that leaves us in the internal market and the customs union.
    “Colleagues will not tolerate a half in, half out Brexit,” Baker, who served as a junior Brexit minister in May’s government until he resigned in protest at her Brexit proposals said.
    If May secures a deal with the EU, she has to get the British parliament to approve it and would need the backing of about 320 lawmakers to get approval.
    If 40 of her lawmakers voted against a possible deal, the fate of the government and exit process would depend on the opposition Labour Party, which has indicated it will vote against almost any deal May might secure.
    Under May’s proposals, Britain will seek a free trade area for goods with the EU, largely by accepting a “common rule book” for goods and British participation in EU agencies that provide authorisations for goods.
    Some Brexiteers say those proposals would ensure the EU kept control over swathes of the British economy and thus run counter to the spirit of her manifesto pledge to leave the EU Customs Union and the Single Market.
    “We are awaiting the detail of exactly what we are going to be asked for vote for.
    ”I don’t doubt that every possible technique is going to be used to sow doubt in colleagues’ minds and to encourage them to vote with the government.
    “In the end the EU is not entitled to split the UK and it’s not entitled to constrain how we regulate our economy and govern ourselves after we leave,” Baker said.
    Without an approved deal, the UK would move from seamless trade with the rest of the European Union to customs arrangements set by the World Trade Organisation for external states with no preferential deals.
    “If the UK faces either possibility then we must in the end be willing to say it’s a bad deal, and no deal is better than a bad deal.
    “We would need to be unafraid to go forward without an agreement,” Baker said.
     

  • Gov’t reshuffle: May holds productive cabinet meeting

    Gov’t reshuffle: May holds productive cabinet meeting

    UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday said she had a “productive cabinet meeting” following the departure of Brexit Minister David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

    “Productive Cabinet meeting this morning, looking ahead to a busy week and sending our best wishes to @England for tomorrow!’’ May tweeted.

    Johnson and Davis resigned over the disagreements with May in relation to the Brexit plan, which the cabinet approved last week at the prime minister’s Chequers residence.

    The 2016 UK referendum in favour of exiting the EU has left the UK divided almost equally between “Remainers” and “Brexiteer”.

    The economic partnership model and the Irish border issue have proven to be contentious matters both in talks with Brussels and debates within the UK cabinet.

    At a meeting with her Conservative Party lawmakers on Monday, she was cheered and applauded by many as she warned them that internal squabbling could pave the way for socialist opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to take power instead.

    “I think it is right that the cabinet backs the prime minister and speaks with one voice and if people don’t do that then they have to go,” Justice Secretary David Gauke told BBC radio.

    Senior lawmakers in her party said they did not expect the prime minister to face a vote of no confidence, although some Conservatives were still saying that she should go.

     

  • Vote again on Brexit, Liverpool manager urges

    Britain should vote again on whether or not to leave the European Union Liverpool’s German manager Jurgen Klopp told The Guardian on Monday.

    The 50-year-old — whose side face AS Roma at Anfield on Tuesday in their Champions League semi-final first leg clash — says the British people were sold short in the original campaign in 2016 in terms of the information they were fed.

    Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but it was a close run thing — 51.9%-48.1%.

    “When Mr (David) Cameron (the then Prime Minister) had the idea (of a referendum) you thought: ‘This is not something people should decide in a moment.’” said Klopp.

    “The choice was either you stay in Europe, which is not perfect, or you go out into something nobody has any idea how it will work.

    “So you give people the chance to make this big decision. And then it’s a 51-49 vote and you’re thinking: ‘Wow, 49% are not happy with the decision that’s going to change the country.’

    “Let’s sit together again. Let’s think about it again and let’s vote again with the right information -– not with the information you’ve got around the Brexit campaign.

    “They were obviously not right, not all of them. It makes no sense at all.”

    Klopp said history should teach people harsh lessons from the past when there has been division.

    “History has always shown that when we stay together we can sort out problems,” he said.

    “When we split then we start fighting. There was not one time in history where division creates success. So, for me, Brexit still makes no sense.”

    However, the charismatic German is adamant despite being touted by some for a future political career in Germany he will not be seeking to follow in the footsteps of present German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

    “Angela Merkel has two weeks off a year,” said Klopp, who credits Merkel as ‘doing an unbelievable job’.

    “That’s less holiday than I have which means that’s absolutely not my target.”

    AFP

  • Merkel: Europe ‘can no longer rely on allies’ after Trump and Brexit

    Europe can no longer “completely depend” on the US and UK following the election of President Trump and Brexit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

    ImageFile: Merkel: Europe ‘can no longer rely on allies’ after Trump and Brexit
    German Chancellor, Angela Merkel

    Mrs Merkel said she wanted friendly relations with both countries as well as Russia but Europe now had to “fight for its own destiny”.

    It follows the G7’s failure to commit to the 2015 Paris climate deal, talks Mrs Merkel said were “very difficult”.

    President Trump has said he will make a decision in the coming week.

    “The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I’ve experienced that in the last few days,” Mrs Merkel told a crowd at an election rally in Munich, southern Germany.

    The BBC’s Damien McGuinness, in Berlin, says the comments are a sign of growing assertiveness within the EU.

    The relationship between Berlin and new French President Emmanuel Macron had to be a priority, Mrs Merkel said.

    Earlier the German leader had described the “six against one” discussion about the Paris Accord during the G7 summit in Sicily as “very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory”.

    Mr Trump said he would abandon the Paris deal – the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement requiring countries to cut carbon emission – during his election campaign and has also expressed doubts about climate change.

    Speaking in Brussels last week, Mr Trump also told Nato members to spend more money on defence and did not re-state his administration’s commitment to Nato’s mutual security guarantees.

    BBC Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the mere fact that this is even in question shows just how uneasy the relationship is between Mr Trump and the organisation of which his country is the leading member.

    While in Belgium Mr Trump also reportedly described German trade practices as “bad, very bad”, complaining that Europe’s largest economy sells too many cars to the US.

    The US president has described his visit to Europe as a “great success for America” with “big results”.

    Polls in Germany say Mrs Merkel is on course to be re-elected for a fourth term as German chancellor at elections in September.

     

     

    BBC