2 YEAR DELAY FOR EU EXIT
Farage furious over May’s offer to Brussels
THERESA May was accused of appeasing Brussels last night after she effectively put Britain’s departure from the EU on hold until at least 2021.
Ukip’s Nigel Farage said her offer to keep the UK signed up to EU rules and regulations throughout a proposed twoyear transition period was an insult to those who voted
Leave in the EU referendum. Calling it “a victory for Westminster and the political class”, he said: “They are giving a big two fingers up to 17.4 million people. We leave the EU but in name only. We stay part of all the current structures and rebadge the status quo. Theresa May showed in Florence that all she wants is to appease the Brussels elite.”
In her long-awaited speech in the Italian city yesterday, the Prime Minister sought to break the deadlock in talks with Brussels by offering a transition period in which Britain will continue accepting unlimited free movement for EU citizens and keep paying into the Brussels budget.
Payments totalling around £18billion from British taxpayers are expected to be handed over by the Government as part of her proposals.
Last night it emerged that Mr Farage is “thinking hard” over the next few days about whether to make a comeback as Ukip leader.
Ukip’s former donor, billionaire businessman Arron Banks led calls for the party’s leadership contest to be scrapped and for Mr Farage to be reinstated.
And a senior Ukip figure last night told the Daily Express that “highlevel conversations have been had” about Mr Farage returning.
He said: “The country is facing a crisis, Brexit has been betrayed and we need Nigel back to lead us in this fight. He is the only person for the job in these circumstances.
“After discussions Nigel is having a hard think about what to do and will decide in the next few days.” Campaigners for a swift and decisive break with Brussels yesterday warned that Mrs May’s move threatened to keep Britain in the EU in all but name for at least another two years.
Richard Tice and John Longworth, co-chairmen of the Brexit-backing pressure group Leave Means Leave, said: “We are deeply concerned that her proposals could lead to nothing changing either during or after the implementation period, which will go on for an undefined amount of time.
“There is no reference to being able to deregulate, sign our own trade deals or control our borders. This is a rebadging of the status quo and is Brexit in name only. In reality, this means we are still members.”
Mrs May’s 35-minute speech offered to keep strong ties with Brussels for “around two years” to try to accelerate the talks which have stalled in a row over a “divorce” payment.
She made clear that Britain will continue paying billions of pounds a year to Brussels to the end of the current EU budget cycle in 2020.
Cautiously
Her proposal means British taxpayers will pay an estimated £18billion more to Brussels on top of the final membership payments due to end in 2019. She rejected reported demands from Brussels for up to £80billion as “exaggerated and unhelpful”.
Her offer to the EU was cautiously welcomed by Brussels chiefs.
Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, called her speech “constructive” and “a step forward”.
He said: “In her speech in Florence, Prime Minister Theresa May has expressed a constructive spirit which is also the spirit of the European Union during this unique negotiation. The EU will continue to insist on sufficient progress in the key areas of the orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom before opening discussions on the future relationship.
“Agreeing on the essential principles in these areas will create the trust that is needed for us to build a future relationship together.”
Cabinet ministers who were previously understood to have misgivings about Mrs May’s plans for a transition deal signalled their backing for her speech last night.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a leading figure in the Leave campaign, called her speech “positive, optimistic and dynamic”.
Setting out her blueprint for the future, Mrs May called for Britain and the EU to work for a bespoke relationship, not copying the links of other countries outside the bloc.
Britain should not be closely tied to Brussels in a similar arrangement to Norway’s. Yet existing links with the EU were so strong that the UK should not seek a looser deal like the one between Brussels and Canada.
“I don’t believe either of these options would be best for the UK or best for the EU,” the Prime Minister said. The two partners did not need to build a new economic relationship from scratch. “We have the same rules and regulations as the EU and our EU Withdrawal Bill will ensure they are
carried over into our domestic law at the moment we leave the EU.
“So the question for us in building a new economic partnership is not how we bring our rules and regulations closer together, but what we do when one of us wants to make changes.”
Britain would formally quit the bloc on March 29, 2019. The Government would no longer sit at the European Council table or in the Council of Ministers and Britain will no longer have MEPs in the European Parliament. But she admitted Britain and the EU would not be ready for a full breach by the formal departure date.
“The fact is that, at that point, neither the UK nor the EU and its member states will be in a position to implement smoothly many of the detailed arrangements that will underpin this new relationship we seek,” Mrs May said. “People and businesses – both in the UK and in the EU – would benefit from a period to adjust to the new arrangements in a smooth and orderly way.”
Britain would formally quit the EU single market but trade would continue in much the same way as before.
“During the implementation period access to one another’s markets should continue on current terms and Britain also should continue to take part in existing security measures.
“I know businesses, in particular, would welcome the certainty this would provide.”
She admitted that tighter border controls would also take some time to introduce. “It will take time to put in place the new immigration system required to re-take control of the UK’s borders. So during the implementation period, people will continue to be able to come and live and work in the UK, but there will be a registration system – an essential preparation for the new regime.”
Her proposal will mean EU migrants registering on arrival as they already do in some other EU countries including Belgium.
Some senior Eurosceptics cautiously welcomed the speech last night. Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg said a two-year transition was “on the margin of acceptability” as long as the UK was not subject to the European Court of Justice and migrants did not get permanent settlement rights.