May doubles down, demands EU respect as Brexit talks hit impasse
Pound falls as much as 1.6% against dollar, the most on a closing basis since June last year
At this late stage in the negotiations, it’s not acceptable to simply reject the other side’s proposals without a detailed explanation and counter proposals.”
Theresa May | British Prime Minister
British Prime Minister Theresa May hit back at the European Union for flatly rejecting her Brexit plans and demanded the bloc treat the UK with respect, as the stalemate in negotiations deepened.
The prime minister revived a warning that no deal is better than a bad deal yesterday, a day after EU leaders bluntly told her that her Brexit divorce blueprint won’t work. In a statement in London, May told them it was “not acceptable to simply reject” her plan.
The pound fell as much as 1.6 per cent against the dollar, the most on a closing basis since June last year.
Earlier last week, May was left looking isolated after leaders told her to re-work her plans, and set her a deadline of next month to come back with new ideas. British officials had been hoping for warmer words from them at a summit in Salzburg, Austria, to bolster the premier as she prepares for what is likely to be a contentious Conservative Party conference from September 30.
“Throughout this process I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same,” May said. EU Council President Donald Tusk lashed out at May’s criticism of the EU’s negotiating position: “The results of our analysis have been known to the British side in every detail for many weeks.”
“The UK stance presented just before and during the Salzburg meeting was surprisingly tough and in fact uncompromising,” he said.
The British government yesterday accused the European Union of slamming the handbrake on Brexit negotiations, after the bloc said Prime Minister Theresa May’s blueprint was unworkable.
European Council President Donald Tusk said bluntly at a meeting in Salzburg, Austria on Thursday that parts of May’s plan simply “will not work,” while French President Emmanuel Macron called pro-Brexit UK politicians “liars” who had misled the country about the costs of leaving the 28-nation bloc.
In a defiant televised statement from Downing Street, May hit back yesterday at the European Union after it rejected her Brexit plan, saying its refusal to compromise was “not acceptable” and reiterating the possibility of walking away from the negotiations.
May said the talks were at an “impasse” just six months before Britain leaves the EU and weeks ahead of a deadline to seal a deal - but put the blame on Brussels.
“Throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it,” the prime minister said.
The rebuff sparked British headlines saying May had been “humiliated,” and a strong response from the UK government.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab accused the EU of rejecting Britain’s proposals without offering “credible alternatives” and said the bloc had “yanked up the handbrake” on negotiations. “For the negotiations to go forward they’re going to have to take their hand off the handbrake,” he said.
The rocky summit dashed British hopes of a breakthrough in stalled divorce talks, with just six months to go until Britain leaves the bloc on March 29.
The judgement of British newspapers was brutal. The broadly pro-EU Guardian said May had been “humiliated.” The conservative Times of London said: “Humiliation for May as EU rejects Brexit plan.”
Britishers taken aback
The Brexit-supporting tabloid Sun branded bloc leaders “EU dirty rats,” accusing “Euro mobsters” Tusk and Macron of “ambushing” May.
Despite all the heated British rhetoric, the EU’s position is not new. May’s “Chequers plan” — named for the prime minister’s country retreat where it was hammered out — aims to keep the UK in the EU single market for goods, but not services, in order to ensure free trade with the bloc and an open border between the UK’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.
EU officials have been cool on the plan from the start, saying Britain can’t “cherry-pick” elements of membership in the bloc without accepting all the costs and responsibilities.
Yet British politicians and diplomats were taken aback by Tusk’s blunt dismissal of the Chequers plan — and by his light-hearted Instagram post showing Tusk and May looking at a dessert tray and the words: “A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries.”
Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller said the EU had “made it clear where they stand and the UK has been so focused on its own infighting that they actually have not been listening.”
“How can [May] have been so badly advised? It stinks of incompetence, the whole thing, when the moment of reality is only four weeks away,” Miller told the BBC.
For the negotiations to go forward they’re [EU] going to have to take their hand off the handbrake.” Dominic Raab | Brexit secretary How can [May] have been so badly advised? It stinks of incompetence, the whole thing, when the moment of reality is only four weeks away.” Gina Miller | Anti-Brexit activist