New premier possible by September

Leadership contest could start next week

BRITAIN could have a new prime minister by early September, the ruling Conservative Party said yesterday, after David Cameron started laying the groundwork for his successor to trigger the country’s exit from the European Union.

The government is under pressure to fill a vacuum left when Cameron announced he would resign by October after Britain ignored his advice and voted to leave the 28-member bloc in last week’s referendum.

Triggering a leadership battle which could draw in some of his closest advisers, Cameron urged ministers to work together in the meantime.

But he also formed a separate unit, staffed by public servants, to help advise Britain on its departure and its options for a future outside the EU.

“Although leaving the EU was not the path I recommended, I am the first to praise our incredible strengths as a country,” Cameron told parliament.

“As we proceed with implementing this decision and facing the challenges it will undoubtedly bring, I believe we should hold fast to a vision of Britain that wants to be respected abroad, tolerant at home, engaged in the world.”

Asked about the possibility of a second EU referendum, he said the result of Thursday’s vote must be accepted.

The chair of the “1922 committee” of Conservative MPs who sets the party’s ground rules in parliament, Graham Brady, said the group had recommended that the leadership contest should begin next week and conclude no later than September 2.

That recommendation will almost certainly be passed.

“Both the Conservatives and the country more generally really want certainty,” Brady told Sky News.

He said there should be no new parliamentary election before Britain had negotiated the terms of its EU exit.

Some Conservative MPs have urged leadership candidates to try to broker a deal quickly to make sure any campaign is as painless as possible.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Germany, France and Italy vowed “a new impulse” for the EU as it reels from Brexit and told London they would make no deals before it formally informed Brussels it would leave the bloc.

The warning signals to Britain that it must first take the plunge of invoking Article 50 to leave the union before being able to negotiate its future trade and other ties with the bloc.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel – hosting French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Berlin, said yesterday: “We agreed . . . that there will be no informal or formal talks on the exit of Britain until an application has been filed to leave the European Union.”

British Finance Minister George Osborne had said earlier that his country should only activate Article 50 when it had a clear view of how its future relations with the bloc would look.

Merkel also vowed the remaining 27 members would push on with the European project, saying: “We will suggest to our [EU] colleagues that we should put in place a new impulse . . . in the coming months.”

Speaking on the eve of a two-day Brussels summit, she said there must be no long period of uncertainty.

Hollande more bluntly urged Britain to “not waste time” in triggering the process to leave the EU, arguing that it was to all parties’ benefit to move forward quickly. – Reuters, AFP