England suspicious of All Blacks praise
I will return to this House before the end of this month to notify when I have formally triggered Article 50 and begun the process through which the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. Theresa May, British Prime Minister
British Prime Minister Theresa May kept up the suspense yesterday over when she would trigger Brexit, saying she would have the power to do so within days and it would happen by the end of March.
After weeks of debate, parliament on Monday approved a bill empowering May to trigger Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which would start a two-year countdown to Britain’s departure from the bloc.
Addressing MPs, May said the bill could now receive formal assent from Queen Elizabeth II ‘in the coming days’ – a process that would leave the prime minister free to start Brexit.
“We remain on track with the timetable I set out six months ago,” May said, referring to her promise to trigger Article 50 by the end of March.
“I will return to this House before the end of this month to notify when I have formally triggered Article 50 and begun the process through which the United Kingdom will leave the European Union,” she said.
“This will be a defining moment for our whole country.”
Opposition Labour MPs jeered the prime minister as she gave an update on last week’s EU summit – particularly when she recounted how she had urged the other EU leaders to complete Europe’s single market, which Britain will be leaving.
Her promise to consult all Britain’s devolved nations in the Brexit negotiations drew particularly loud laughter, the day after Scotland’s governing nationalists launched a fresh bid for independence.
The British government has said a second referendum is unnecessary, less than three years after Scots rejected independence in a first vote, and May said yesterday that “this is not a moment to play politics”.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s bombshell announcement on Monday came at the start of a week in which May had been expected to announce the start of the process for extracting Britain from the EU.
Downing Street then played down the talk – but British newspapers were left in no doubt as to what had happened.
‘Sturgeon ambushes May,’ read a front-page headline in The Times, while The Guardian said: “May’s Brexit plan upstaged as Sturgeon seizes her moment.”
The Metro daily said: “Scots throw a sporran in the works” – a reference to a distinctive leather pouch worn in traditional Scottish Highland dress.
Sturgeon yesterday warned the British government that there should be no “blocking mechanisms” for her plans.
Commentators pointed out the irony that May will now be forced to argue at the same time against membership of one union – the European one – but in favour of another – the British one.
The European Commission said an independence referendum was a domestic matter for Britain but indicated that Scotland would have to reapply to join the European Union if it pulled out of the United Kingdom.
May faces another headache in Northern Ireland as she pushes ahead with what her critics have called ‘ hard Brexit’ – departure from Europe’s single market.
Irish nationalists Sinn Fein gained significant ground in elections in the British province earlier this month and on Monday called for a referendum ‘as soon as possible’ on Northern Ireland leaving the UK and joining the Republic of Ireland.