New riot at Jungle
PM sets deadline to leave EU
PROTESTERS clash with French police as they stage a demonstration calling for Britain to take in more refugees.
A riot erupted near the Calais Jungle camp as migrants vowed to disrupt the French government’s plans to evict them from their makeshift homes near the Channel port. Activists were doused with water cannon and pushed back from the police lines with tear gas.
BREXIT will be under way in six months or sooner – and the deal will be done by summer 2019.
Prime Minister Theresa May declared she will trigger Article 50 by next March and set in motion the UK’s European divorce.
She told the Tory conference yesterday: “We have voted to leave the European Union and become a fully independent, sovereign country.
“We will decide for ourselves how we control immigration. And we will be free to pass our own laws.”
The premier, famous for her footwear collection, wore black slippers with silver toe caps at the Birmingham event.
She told the party the most important thing was to leave with the “least disruption to businesses”.
But she ® by KATE NELSON stressed the UK must be savvy and not “set out all the cards” in our negotiations. She added: “As anybody will know who’s been involved in these things, if you do that up front, or if you give a running commentary, you don’t get the right deal.” She insisted: “The referendum vote was clear. It was legitimate. It was the biggest vote for change this country has ever known.” Mrs May will set about revoking a raft of EU laws which have more power than UK law. But she sought to calm unions’ fears by insisting workers’ rights will not suffer. She said: “Let me be absolutely clear – existing workers’ legal rights will continue to be guaranteed in law and they will be guaranteed as long as I am Prime Minister.”
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady demanded a strong stance on zero-hour contracts.
She said the Government “must listen” to unions which “represent millions of workers at the hard end of an unfair labour market”.
Welcoming Mrs May’s words, European Council president Donald Tusk said they bring “welcome clarity on start of Brexit talks”.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said “any lingering gloomadonpoppers” should now accept Brexit will liberate the UK.
He said it would free us “to be more active on the world stage than ever before”.
Leading Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith thinks the exit could begin even sooner than spring 2017.
The former Work and Pensions Secretary said: “This is a ‘by the end of March’, so there is every chance she will be triggering it earlier.”