Britain will not be derailed from leaving EU, says May

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May said yesterday that she would not be derailed from leaving the EU, laying the groundwork for difficult meetings this week in which she will try to unite a divided cabinet behind her vision for post-Brexit Britain.

May was applauded by EU leaders in Brussels on Friday after securing an agreement to move previously-deadlocked talks forward to the topic of interim and long-term trading arrangements.

The progress has gone some way to easing concerns of businesses and investors who fear Britain could crash out of the bloc without an exit deal, or that May’s fragile government could collapse under the pressure of delivering Brexit.

“Amid all the noise, we are getting on with the job,” May wrote in the Sunday Telegraph. “My message today is very clear: we will not be derailed from this fundamental duty to deliver the democratic will of the British people.”

But May can expect some difficult exchanges this week when she and senior ministers discuss the so-called “end state” of the Brexit negotiations for the first time since Britain voted to leave the EU in a referendum in June last year.

The type of long-term relationship the country should have with the EU is a vexed question at every level in Britain, including within May’s cabinet, where some want to keep close ties with the EU and others want a more radical divorce from Brussels.

Mindful of the need to keep both sides happy, May has so far plotted a careful path.

She says she wants a wide-ranging free trade deal with the EU and a more outward-looking trade policy. – Reuters