May: Now let’s get on with it

She throws down gauntlet to EU with blueprint for successful future

THERESA May threw down the gauntlet to Brussels yesterday as she said the EU had a ‘shared interest’ in making a success of Brexit.

In a long-awaited speech, the Prime Minister set out a blueprint that would maintain trade links while setting Britain free to decide its own destiny.

After Brussels accused her of ‘cherry picking’ the parts of EU membership it likes, Mrs May pointed out that all trade deals work that way.

And with the clock ticking down to Britain’s exit in March next year, she urged the EU to accelerate trade talks.

She said: ‘ We know what we want. We understand your principles. We have a shared interest in getting this right. So let’s get on with it.’

Yesterday’s speech at Mansion House in the City of London follows weeks of Cabinet wrangling over how far to go in making a clean break with the EU.

In a decisive statement, Mrs May said she would lead Britain out of the single market, rejected calls to join a customs union, called time on the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and vowed to end the free movement of people.

The PM said Brexit would produce ‘a stronger, more cohesive nation’. And she dismissed calls for a second referendum, saying: ‘We won’t think again on Brexit. The people voted for it and it is incumbent on the Government to deliver it.’

But she also warned that making a clean break with Brussels would come at the price of reduced access to European markets. ‘I want to be straight with people – because the reality is that we all need to face up to some hard facts,’ said Mrs May.

‘We are leaving the single market. Life is going to be different. In certain ways, our access to each other’s markets will be less than it is now. How could the EU’s structure of rights and obligations be sustained, if the UK – or any country – were allowed to enjoy all the benefits without all of the obligations? So we need to strike a new balance.’

Last night, Mrs May’s intervention appeared to have succeeded in uniting the warring factions of the Conservative Party without immediately alienating Brussels. In a speech that was long on detail, Mrs May:

÷Rejected ‘unacceptable’ EU plans to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union after Brexit, which she warned would break up Britain.

÷Said the UK may continue to respect EU state aid and competition rules – which could frustrate a future hard-Left government bent on imposing socialism.

÷Pledged to maintain regulatory standards that are ‘ as high as’ the EU’s, even if they are achieved by different means.

÷Warned that the European economy would lose out if it tried to punish the City.

÷Set out two options for maintaining light- touch customs arrangement between Britain and the EU.

÷Confirmed she was willing to walk away without a deal if the EU tried to punish Britain.

She also said the UK could pay to remain in EU regulatory bodies in areas such as chemicals, medicine and aerospace.

She pledged to negotiate a deal that would give British trawlermen a ‘fairer allocation’ of fishing rights and said Britain would demand ‘domestic flexibility’ in areas like the digital sector to prevent tech start-ups being held back by EU red tape.

On the balance between divergence from EU rules and access to the single market, Mrs May said she expected many regulations for traded goods to remain ‘ substantially similar’ in the immediate future.

But, critically, she said Parliament would be free to change them in future ‘in the knowledge that there may be consequences for our market access’. Disputes would be settled by an ‘independent mechanism’ – not EU judges.

In the run-up to the speech, Eurosceptic MPs were on alert for any backsliding. But last night most were content that Mrs May had struck the right balance.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith described the speech as ‘pretty good’. He added: ‘She was very clear about the fact we are leaving the single market and customs union and taking back controls of our laws and borders.’ Former Tory chancellor Lord Lamont said it was now time for Remainers on the Tory benches to stop undermining Mrs May.

Sarah Wollaston, a leading Tory Remainer, described the speech as ‘pragmatic and positive’.

But diehard Remainer Anna Soubry struck a sour note about Mrs May’s blueprint, saying: ‘It will not deliver the same benefits, the positives to our economy, as we currently have.’

EU negotiator Michel Barnier welcomed the ‘clarity’ that Britain wanted a clean break, saying it would help Brussels finalise its negotiating guidelines.

EU and UK officials will hold talks in Brussels from Monday on the Irish border, the financial settlement and citizens’ rights,

‘We need to face up to some hard facts’