Brexit: May’s plan in disarray after EU rebuff
: Held up as the only option on the table, Prime Minister Theresa May’s Chequers plan to leave the EU was rejected by European leaders in Salzburg, leaving her politically weaker on Friday to face critics at the annual Conservative Party conference on September 31.
Amid high-profile resignations and criticism since the plan was unveiled in July at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, May has insisted it alone is capable of honouring the 2016 referendum vote to leave the 28-nation bloc, due on March 29, 2019.
May was greeted with bruising headlines in the British and European press on Friday, describing her Salzburg trip as a “humiliation” and “disaster” and saying that she was “sent packing”, after European Union leaders described her plan as “unworkable”. Worse, France President Emmanuel Macron called proBrexit leaders “liars”, riling many in the UK.
The oft-repeated criticism in Westminster on Friday was that May was in denial, after she and her allies stuck to the line that the Chequers plan envisaging continued links (“common rulebook”) with the EU after Brexit was “still workable”.
Another major hurdle has been May’s plan to avoid a hard border after Brexit between Ireland (a EU country) and Northern
LONDON
Ireland (part of the UK). The two are closely linked by culture, history, politics, economy and the long period of conflict.
Leaving the EU means leaving the single market and the customs union, which implies new border arrangements between the UK and the only EU country with which it will share a border: Ireland. In short, the reality of geography poses a major challenge to Brexit plans.
Communities secretary James Brokenshire sought to defend May’s approach: “The Chequers deal is a workable, credible deal to meet our ambitions. They (the EU) have said that it’s about the integrity of the single market and we believe the Chequers deal responds to that, and it’s for the EU to engage with what’s on the table.”
But Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Now that the EU has explicitly rejected it, the Chequers pretence has to stop. At the very least, single market/customs union membership must be back on the table.”