It’s a hard sell for may to get backIng of dIvIded lawmakers
Negotiators from Britain and the European Union have struck a proposed divorce deal that will be presented to politicians on both sides for approval, officials in London and Brussels said on Tuesday.
After a year and a half of stalled talks, false starts and setbacks, negotiators agreed on proposals to resolve the main outstanding issue: the Irish border.
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s office said the Cabinet would hold a special meeting on Wednesday to consider the proposal. Its support isn’t guaranteed: May is under pressure from pro-Brexit ministers not to make further concessions to the EU.
Ambassadors from the 27 other EU countries are also due to hold a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
May told the Cabinet earlier on Tuesday that “a small number” of issues remain to be resolved in divorce negotiations with the European Union, while her deputy, David Lidington, said the two sides are “almost within touching distance” of a Brexit deal.
It is going to be a “very, very hard sell” for British Prime Minister Theresa May to win parliamentary backing for her emerging Brexit deal, the deputy leader of the small Northern Irish party propping up her government said.
“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,” the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) Nigel Dodds told BBC Northern Ireland.
“The crucial issue is going to be what happens when it comes to cabinet and when it gets to parliament. We haven’t seen any details, we’ll see what happens. People know what our position is very clearly and we will judge whatever comes forward against the positions that have already been outlined.”
Britain wants to seal a deal this fall, so that Parliament has time to vote on it before the UK leaves the bloc on March 29. The European Parliament also has to approve any agreement.
Negotiators have been meeting late into the night in Brussels in a bid to close the remaining gaps.
The main obstacle has long been how to ensure there are no customs posts or other checks along the border between the UK’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit.
Irish national broadcaster RTE said the draft agreement involves a common customs arrangement for the UK and the EU, to eliminate the need for border checks.
But May faces pressure from pro-Brexit Cabinet members not to agree to an arrangement that binds Britain to EU trade rules indefinitely.
May also faces growing opposition from pro-EU lawmakers, who say her proposed Brexit deal is worse than the status quo and the British public should get a new vote on whether to leave or to stay.
If there is no agreement soon, UK businesses will have to start implementing contingency plans for a “no-deal”
The negotiations for our departure are now in the endgame. We are working extremely hard, through the night, to make progress on the remaining issues in the Withdrawal Agreement, which are significant.
I will not compromise on what people voted for in the referendum. This will not be an agreement at any cost.
Theresa May, British PM
Brexit — steps that could include cutting jobs, stockpiling goods and relocating production and services outside Britain.
Even with such measures in place, the British government says leaving the EU without a deal could cause major economic disruption, with gridlock at ports and disruption to supplies of foods, goods and medicines.
On Tuesday, the European Commission published a sheaf of notices outlining changes in a host of areas in the event of a no-deal Brexit. They point to major disruption for people and businesses: U.K. truckers’ licenses won’t be valid in the EU, British airlines will no longer enjoy traffic rights, and even British mineral water will cease to be recognized as such by the EU.
Meanwhile, official figures suggest Brexit is already having an impact on the British workforce.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of EU citizens working in the country — 2.25 million— was down 132,000 in the three months to September from the year before. That’s the largest annual fall since comparable records began in 1997. — london— Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May and the European Union are stage managing a Brexit deal that will doom the United Kingdom to the status of a colony, former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.
“No one is fooled by this theatre. Delay after staged managed delay,” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “A deal will be reached and it will mean surrender by the UK.
“We will be doomed to remain in the customs union and under Brussels’ regulatory control. People did not vote for colony status,” he said. “The future can be bright if only we change course now.”
It was the latest call by Johnson, the figurehead of Britain’s campaign to leave the European Union, for May to drop her so-called Chequers plans in favour of negotiating a clean break with the bloc and securing a Canada-style free trade deal.
His comments come days after his brother, fellow Conservative lawmaker Jo Johnson, resigned as a transport minister over Brexit. Boris
We will be doomed to remain in the customs union and under Brussels’ regulatory control. People did not vote for colony status.
Boris Johnson, former
British Foreign Secretary
Johnson said he agreed with his brother that the Brexit talks were “the biggest failure of United Kingdom statecraft since Suez” when Britain lost control of the waterway in the 1950s.
“I really can’t believe it but this government seems to be on the verge of total surrender,” he wrote in his weekly column in the newspaper. —