May calls on business leaders to support deal
PM makes case for draft agreement ahead of critical week for Brexit plan
Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, is trying to convince members of her political party and her cabinet that the divorce deal she and her negotiators worked out with the European Union is good for the United Kingdom.
On Monday, she made her case in front of 1,000 of Britain’s top business executives at the annual meeting of the Confederation of British Industry, which is also known as the CBI, where she said Britain should be open to the world’s best immigrants, and that Brexit means unskilled EU migrants will no longer “jump the queue”.
The PM said she wants migration into the UK to be skills-based, with Europeans no longer prioritized over “engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi”.
The CBI broadly welcomed the 585-page draft Brexit withdrawal deal, saying any agreement would be better than the uncertainty of a no-deal exit at the end of March. But the organization has expressed concern about possible labor shortages in the hospitality and construction sectors.
The CBI’s backing is likely to bolster support for the draft deal among members of May’s Conservative Party ahead of a vote in Parliament.
Ministers from the other 27 EU member nations met on Monday before they sign off on the draft deal on Sunday. The BBC reports the EU plans to draft a political declaration detailing the bloc’s future relationship with the UK and says May will hammer out a framework for a future trade relationship while in Brussels this week.
The draft deal will then need support from members of Britain’s Parliament and May faces an uphill battle, with some MPs favoring a clean break and no deal, and others wanting a closer postBrexit relationship.
The opposition Labour Party has said it will not back the deal and several smaller parties also oppose it.
Two members of May’s cabinet resigned in protest when the proposed deal was unveiled last week and the Guardian reported that another five cabinet ministers are lobbying the prime minister to change the wording, something May has said she will not do.
With several MPs from May’s party, including prominent backbencher Jacob ReesMogg, calling for a leadership challenge, May appeared on Sky News on Sunday to defend herself.
“A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier and it’s not going to change the parliamentary arithmetic,” she said. “What it will do is mean there is a delay to those negotiations and that’s a risk that Brexit gets delayed or frustrated. This isn’t about me. This is about the national interest. The next seven days are critical.”
Former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard told BBC Radio 4’s Today program a leadership challenge would be a distraction.
The UK and EU will have a transitional period until the end of 2020 during which their relationship will stay largely the same. The European Commission recently suggested the transitional period could be extended until the end of 2022, something hardline Brexiteers would hate.
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said on Monday the draft deal was a fair compromise and that the EU and the UK will have a deep and special relationship.