Cabinet to discuss Brexit draft deal today

EU LEADERS MAY MEET ON NOVEMBER 25 TO SEAL THE DEAL IF UK’S CABINET APPROVES THE TEXT

EU and Britain have agreed draft text of divorce accord but it is unclear if UK parliament will approve it |

The European Union and Britain have agreed a draft text of a Brexit withdrawal agreement and Prime Minister Theresa May will present it to her senior ministers today, after more than a year of tortuous negotiations.

It remains unclear whether May can get any deal approved by the British parliament as hardline Brexiteers said she had surrendered to Brussels.

A senior EU official confirmed that a draft text had been agreed. EU leaders could meet on November 25 for a summit to seal the Brexit deal if May’s cabinet approves the text, diplomatic sources said.

Sterling, which has seesawed since reaching $1.50 just before Britain’s 2016 referendum that saw a 52-48 per cent margin for leaving the EU, surged to $1.3036.

Supporters of Brexit say that while the divorce might bring some short-term instability, in the longer term it will allow the United Kingdom to thrive and also enable deeper EU integration without such a powerful reluctant member.

Selling Brexit

The EU and Britain need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and the United Kingdom, home to the biggest international financial centre.

But May has struggled to untangle nearly 46 years of EU membership without damaging commerce or upsetting lawmakers who will ultimately decide the fate of the divorce deal.

By seeking to leave the EU while preserving the closest possible ties, May’s compromise plan has upset Brexiteers, pro-Europeans, Scottish nationalists, the Northern Irish party that props up her government, and some of her own ministers.

News of the deal prompted eurosceptic opponents to promise to scuttle it in parliament where, ever since losing a snap 2017 election, May has had to rely on the support of 10 Northern Irish lawmakers for her majority.

It looks like she will have a mountain to climb.

“The trick will be for Theresa May, can she satisfy everyone? It is going to be a very, very hard sell, I would have thought, but let’s wait and see the actual detail,” Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) deputy leader Nigel Dodds said.

The opposition Labour Party, which has said it would oppose any agreement that does not retain “the exact same” economic benefits that it now has with the European Union, said it was unlikely the announced deal was right for Britain.

Prominent Brexiteers such as Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said May had sold out the United Kingdom and that they would oppose it. “It is vassal state stuff,” Johnson said.