Britain to take hard road out of Europe
Prime minister spells out plans for clean and complete Brexit, and warns EU not to try to punish UK during negotiations
LONDON // Britain is planning a “hard Brexit” from the European Union but still aims to remain “profoundly internationalist”, prime minister Theresa May said in London yesterday. But in her long- awaited speech, as she told of her ambition for a clean and complete departure, Mrs May warned the EU not to seek to punish the UK in exit negotiations.
“That would be an act of calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe. And it would not be the act of a friend.” For months, Mrs May has had to counter accusations that she and her ministers had no well-defined vision for Brexit.
The speech yesterday, delivered at Lancaster House, was intended to allay those fears and uncertainty.
Straight after the speech, the British pound experienced its biggest surge since the Brexit referendum in June last year, rising to US$1.23.
But the currency is still worth about 17 per cent less than be- fore the popular vote.
Since June, there has been much speculation as to whether the UK would opt for a “soft Brexit”, keeping some form of membership in the European single market.
According to government estimates, a hard Brexit will cost the British economy £66 billion a year, and the country’s gross domestic product could fall by as much as 9.5 per cent. But Mrs May was adamant about her government’s preferred course of action.
“The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union,” she said. “Not partial membership of the EU, associate membership of the EU or anything that leaves us half-in, half-out. “We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave.”
But Mrs May did say her negotiators would try to reach some form of free-trade regime with the EU and keep some access to the common market.
The British government is now expected to trigger Article 50, the clause of the Lisbon Treaty that initiates separation from the EU, by the end of March.
That will be followed by two years of negotiations, after which the house of commons and house of lords will approve or reject the final Brexit deal that Mrs May’s government has hammered out with the bloc.
A rejection of the deal may involve a return to the negotiating table, prolonging the process.
Mrs May outlined 12 objectives for the talks, including guarantees for “the rights of EU citizens who are already living in Britain”, but said her government would strive to control further migration from Europe.
The UK will also seek to keep visa-free travel with Ireland. The Irish government welcomed the decision to avoid a hard border with Northern Ireland.
In another warning to the EU, Mrs May said that to alienate the UK during talks “would jeopardise investments in Britain by EU companies, worth more than half a trillion pounds”.
“It would mean a loss of access for European firms to the financial services of the City of Lon- don. It would risk exports from the EU to Britain worth about £290bn every year,” she said.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, accused Mrs May of “wanting to have her cake and eat it”.
“She has said ‘Leave the single market’, then at the same time, ‘ We want access to the single market’. I’m not quite sure how that’s going to go down in Europe,” Mr Corbyn said. Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, worried that Mrs May’s speech was “a mixture of vague fanta- sies and toothless threats ”. Adam Marshall, director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said Mrs May’s speech had at least given business a clearer sense of her priorities. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Mrs May’s speech “has finally created a little more clarity”, but noted that seven months after the referendum, Brexit had still not been formalised. He welcomed Mrs May’s plans for the UK’s departure from the EU.