UK’s May: Brexit deal proves critics wrong
LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May has hit back at critics of her handling of
Brexit, writing in the Sunday Telegraph that she had “proven the doubters wrong” after securing an interim deal.
Pressure lifted on the embattled leader after she struck a deal with the European Union over Britain’s divorce terms last Friday, enabling talks to turn to the country’s future trading relationship after months of fraught negotiations.
“We have proven the doubters wrong and are making progress toward a successful exit from the EU,” she wrote in the center-right broadsheet, calling the agreement “a watershed” in negotiations.
“Amid all the noise, we are getting on with the job,” she added. “We will not be derailed from this fundamental duty to deliver the democratic will of the British people.”
The prime minister said it was important to work out the exact terms of an implementation period, designed to soften the effects of Brexit after the March 2019 leave date, “as soon as possible... to provide invaluable certainty for employers.”
She also played down fears of Brexit voters that Britain would end up being bound by EU rules, insisting that the country would regain “control of our borders, and set our own laws.”
However, prominent Brexit campaigners in her own cabinet appeared concerned that Britain would be restricted by EU rules during the transition period, which is expected to last for around two years. EDINBURGH: A poll has found that 51 percent of Britons would now keep European Union membership while 41 percent want to leave the bloc, a near reversal of last year’s referendum result.
The BMG poll of 1,400 people for The Independent published on the newspaper’s website on Saturday came as Britain moves into a second phase of negotiations on exiting the EU, which will focus on trade.
The Independent said the lead for “remain” over “leave” was the biggest in any poll so far since the vote in June 2016.
But the head of polling at BMG, quoted in the Independent, said that the reason for the change was a shift in opinion among those who did not vote in last year’s referendum, while around nine in 10 “leave” and “remain” voters were unchanged in their views. The survey was carried out from Dec. 5 to 8.
In the referendum last year, 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU and 48 percent voted to remain.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the Sunday Times that Britain risked becoming a “vassal state” of Europe if it did not fully leave the jurisdiction of European courts or the customs union, which would prevent it from striking trade deals with other countries.
His comments came shortly after Finance Minister Philip Hammond said Britain would “effectively replicate the status quo” during the transition period, highlighting May’s task in uniting her cabinet ahead of the second phase of negotiations.
She also faces battles with her own MPs, 11 of whom rebelled last week to deliver the government a damaging Parliamentary defeat on the bill that will enshrine Brexit into domestic law.