As UK ministers quit over soft Brexit Coveney says it’s good week for May
DESPITE the rebellion among British ministers against Theresa May’s ‘soft’ EU exit strategy, Tánaiste Simon Coveney says this has been a ‘good week for Brexit’.
Following the resignation of senior ministers David Davis and Boris Johnson, and others of more junior rank, Brexiteers in Westminster are now warning of a sustained attack on the prime minister’s proposals.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Coveney says he is certain Mrs May will withstand the pressure – and he has insisted Britain is now headed for a ‘soft Brexit’.
He said: ‘It looks very clear that the British prime minister is going to survive this week, politically. I think she has shown some authority as a
prime minister and I think that was needed on Brexit.
‘Now I think that the serious negotiation on the future relationship needs to begin and we need to conclude over the summer the legal text of a
withdrawal agreement that, of course, has an Irish backstop in it,’ he said, calling on Britain to honour its commitments on avoiding a hard border.
He said the British government is moving to ‘what the majority of people are looking for – which is a sensible, soft Brexit’. And he added that the EU would be willing to show flexibility to the UK government which has finally provided proposals that can be negotiated on. But he warned there would be no compromising on the rules of the Single Market and Customs Union.
‘The EU will take the new position of the UK seriously,’ he said, ‘I think people have always said if Britain is willing to show flexibility on their red lines, then the EU would try to respond with some generosity and flexibility.’