May tells EU: Give us trade deal within a year... or else
They leak claim that ‘tormented’ May begged for help with Brexit
THERESA May last night issued a fresh threat that Britain could walk away from Brexit talks without a trade deal.
She suggested the country would make a clean break with no transitional period if an agreement on future trade is not in place by this time next year.
The Prime Minister told the Commons that the whole reason for having a phased departure in the two years after Brexit in March 2019 was so that it would be a ‘bridge’ to a final deal.
The comments struck a blow to diehard Remainers who are pushing for a soft Brexit, but delighted Brexiteers in her party who want Britain to take a tough line.
And in a boost for Mrs May last night, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier revealed that his team has already started drafting a divorce treaty.
He said ‘no deal’ was becoming less likely, telling French newspaper Les Echos: ‘I am convinced that a path is possible as long as we de-dramatise the discussion.
‘My team are already starting work on a draft of the treaty for the exit of the UK from the EU.’
Mrs May earlier confirmed her 12-month deadline, telling MPs: ‘An implementation period is about a period that is adjusting to the future relationship.
‘That’s the basis on which I’ve put it forward to the European Union and that’s the basis on which we’ll be negotiating an agreement.
‘The point of the implementation period is to put in place the practical changes necessary to move to the future partnership.
‘In order to have that you need to know what the future partnership is going to be.’
Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary, told the Commons that Brussels would be the biggest loser if Britain walked away without a trade deal.
He said: ‘Last year, the European Union had a surplus with us of £71.8billion. A report last week said that if we moved to tariffs, the German auto indus- try alone would lose 29,000 jobs. It is massively in the interests of our partners to maintain reciprocal free trade.’
Fellow Tory MP Nigel Evans criticised the Labour opposition front bench for behaving like ‘Oliver Twist in reverse’ by going to Brussels ‘holding a bowl of British taxpayers’ money, saying, “Please sir, can we give you more?”’
He said it was ‘ not just absurd but a slight to the British taxpayer’.
Mrs May’s comments came after a leak of a draft letter intended for Brexit Secretary David Davis from five of Britain’s biggest business lobby groups emphasised the need for transitional arrangements to be agreed ‘as soon as possible’.
The private letter, signed by the CBI, British Chambers of Commerce, manufacturing trade body EEF, the Institute of Directors and the Federation of Small Businesses, said firms were facing serious decisions with ‘consequences for jobs and investment in the UK’.
Downing Street said the details of the transition, or ‘ implementation period’, would have to be discussed alongside the final trade deal.
‘The implementation period is a bridge to where we are headed in terms of the future relationship with the EU,’ the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
Boris Johnson yesterday told a conference in London organised by the Chatham House foreign affairs thinktank: ‘I’m glad that at the Council in Brussels they seemed more positive, frankly, than I thought they were going to be, to judge by some of the anticipatory drum roll of that council.
‘They have given a fair wind to the idea of themselves now discussing the new trade deal or however they want to proceed.
‘I suggest humbly to our friends and partners in Brussels, now is the time to get on with it.’
‘Brussels would be biggest loser’
BRUSSELS bureaucrats last night faced fury from across Europe after they were accused of leaking toxic smears about Theresa May.
Spiteful claims about how the ‘tormented’ Prime Minister ‘ begged’ the European Commission’s Jean-Claude Juncker for help at a dinner were planted in a German newspaper.
The damning account dismissed Mrs May as anxious, despondent and with ‘deep circles under her eyes’, sparking tensions between Whitehall and Brussels.
The finger of suspicion immediately fell on Martin Selmayr, Mr Juncker’s chief-of-staff, with the Prime Minister’s former aide Nick Timothy publicly accusing him of being behind the plot. Mr Selmayr furiously denied any involvement, as Commission officials yesterday mounted an extraordinary attempt to dodge blame by suggesting the UK could be responsible.
But last night European capitals, including Berlin, voiced anger as they warned the con- stant leaks from Brussels risked the breakdown of Brexit talks.
One diplomat told the Daily Mail: ‘We are not happy with people talking, it is not the way to move forward, it is not productive, it is not constructive and not helping us to reach agreement with the UK.’
In a further twist, it was claimed ed last night that at the end of the dinner, whichich was held in the Commission’s Berlaymont ntt headquarters in Brussels last Monnday, Mr Juncker had pointedlyly declared: ‘Now we won’t have any ny leaks of this will we Martin?’ Thehe row comes only months after thehe senior Brussels official – nicknamed ed ‘the monster’ - was accused of leakaking details of a Downing Street dinn- ner between Mrs May and Mr Juncker in June, which also led to a furious fall-out.
In a desperate attempt to preevent another clash, the European an Commission yesterday launched daa coordinated defence and sugggested British officials may have ve leaked the information to scupper er talks. Mr Juncker insisted ‘nothing ng was true in all of this’ and insisted ed he was ‘shocked’ by the account of the dinner that appeared in Gererman newspaper Frankfurter Allgeemeine Zeitung.
The European Commission presisident said Mrs May ‘ was in good od shape’ during the meeting that he described as ‘excellent’.
‘She was not tired, she was fighthting, as is her duty so everything for or me was ok,’ he added.
He also denied claims she had begged for help in finding a breakthrough in Brexit talks during the dinner, insisting this is ‘ not the style of British Prime Ministers’.
In a further sign of fears that the leaks could jeopardise relations and reinvigorate calls for a ‘no deal’ outcome, Mr Selmayr posted a number of messages distancing himself from the accusations.
Responding directly to Mr Timothy, who resigned as Mrs May’s chief of staff following June’s General Election, he said: ‘This is false. I know it doesn’t fit your cliche...But Juncker and I have no interest in weakening [the Prime Minister].’
He added: ‘But it seems some have interest in undermining constructive relations. Who...is the real question. The German lawyer, who colleagues call ‘Darth Vader’ due to his use of the dark arts of political control, said the leak was an attempt to ‘frame the EU side and to undermine talks’.
Mr Selmayr was one of only six officials present at the meeting last Monday. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, was also present alongside Brexit Secretary David Davis and Olly Robbins, the UK’s top Brexit official. The detailed account of the dinner was published on Sunday and written by Thomas Gutschker, a journalist who is known to have close links to Mr Juncker’s inner circle.
The journalist was also responsible for a highly- detailed account after the leaders’ previous dinner at Downing Street that revealed sensitive information and claimed Mrs May was ‘delusional’.
Citing anonymous ‘colleagues’ of Mr Juncker, the latest article claimed Mrs May called for concessions from the bloc in return for promises made in her landmark Florence Brexit speech.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith yesterday branded Mr Selmayr ‘the acting President of the European Union’ in the Commons, in reference to his supposed power over Mr Juncker.
But Brussels broke with protocol to suggest a third party was trying to sabotage negotiations, saying: ‘Some people like to point at us to serve their own political agendas, their own political priorities or even to undermine our negotiating position.’ Downing Street refused to be drawn on the allegations yesterday, pointing to a joint statement issued by Mrs May and Mr Juncker after the dinner, which described it as ‘constructive and friendly’.
‘She was fighting, as is her duty’
IT was often said of Margaret Thatcher that she was lucky in her enemies.
Ranting Trotskyites such as Arthur Scargill and Derek Hatton, the hopelessly weak Labour leader Michael Foot and of course Argentina’s ghastly General Galtieri were all so deeply unappealing that the country instinctively rallied to her side in times of strife. In European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, Theresa May seems to have found just such an opponent. For if any man epitomises everything that’s so wrong with the Brussels club, it’s him.
One of five unelected EU presidents, he has no democratic mandate, yet he struts across the European political stage as if he owns it, wilfully blocking Brexit’s progress and mocking Mrs May and her team as ‘deluded’, ‘living in another galaxy’ and even ‘unaccountable’.
If anyone should know about being unaccountable, it’s this posturing buffoon.
He and his bullying chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (also unelected) were at it again this week, briefing against Mrs May to a German newspaper following a private dinner in Brussels.
Both men furiously deny being the source of the attack – but since they and Mr Juncker’s spin doctor were the only EU representatives present, their protestations of innocence are less than plausible.
The story portrayed the Prime Minister as ‘despondent and discouraged’, unsmiling, exhausted and ‘begging for help’.
She may be a little weary because, unlike brandy-loving Mr Juncker, she works prodigously hard.
But anyone who knows her, knows she’s a woman of pride and integrity. She would never beg – and certainly not before a tin-pot dictator like Mr Juncker. Indeed one British guest at the dinner said this portrait of her was ‘patently ridiculous’.
The truth is that while Mrs May is tirelessly seeking the best Brexit deal for Britain and Europe, Mr Juncker is interested only in extracting as much cash from us as he possibly can, to help fund his dream of an ever-expanding superstate.
Mrs May has made real concessions over the divorce bill, EU citizens’ rights and the Irish border, but has been met with nothing but intransigence and personal abuse.
But this pig-headed approach could spectacularly backfire. Chancellor Angela Merkel is already showing impatience with the deadlock and Germany is said to be working on a ‘ comprehensive free trade deal’ with the UK post-Brexit.
And in Britain, Mrs May’s dignity in the face of these petty tyrants will win her many new friends. It also serves to remind people why we are so right to be leaving.
As Mrs Thatcher discovered, the British have a pathological loathing of bullies – and rally behind those who stand up to them.