DAY ONE AND THE GLOVES ARE OFF

May: Do deal on trade or we won’t help with security That’s blackmail says EU and we’ll make you suffer

THERESA May was accused last night of trying to blackmail the European Union over a Brexit trade deal.

in a show of steel that angered Brussels, the Prime Minister suggested she could withdraw co-operation on security unless a satisfactory agreement was signed.

she used her Article 50 letter, which starts a two-year divorce process, to warn the EU against trying to damage Britain at such a dangerous time. the 28-member bloc leans heavily on British surveillance and anti-terror capacities.

guy Verhofstadt, the european Parliament’s Brexit negotiator, described Mrs May’s warning as tantamount to blackmail.

EU leaders quickly warned they would block Mrs May’s call for a new trade deal to be negotiated alongside the terms of Britain’s

departure. ‘The negotiations must first clarify how we will disentangle our interlinked relationship,’ said German chancellor Angela Merkel. ‘Only when this question is dealt with, can we begin talking about our future relationship.’

French president Francois Hollande said Brexit ‘would be painful for the British’. The row came as: Mrs May said Brexit was ‘a historic moment from which there can be no turning back’;

Downing Street said the UK would leave the EU on March 29, 2019;

Nicola Sturgeon’s entire case for independence was demolished by a report that shows most Scots favour key elements of a ‘hard Brexit’ such as tighter control of immigration from the EU – and don’t want a separate deal for Scotland;

Mrs May promised the Scottish parliament will benefit from a mass Brussels power grab as key policy-making returns from the EU;

SNP ministers threatened to go ahead with an independence referendum without the approval of the UK Government;

The Prime Minister ducked questions over a potential £50billion ‘divorce bill’;

She floated the idea of a transitional period to phase in immigration and customs changes.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon said Brexit ‘threatens to be an act of self-harm’. She said: ‘Brexit – especially the hard Brexit shaped by May’s inability to shake off the agenda of the Ukip-tinged Right wing of her own party – threatens to be an act of self-harm on a scale barely understood.’

However, the First Minister insisted that an independence referendum would take place.

She said: ‘That choice will be between an outward-looking vision of an independent Scotland taking its place in Europe and the wider world, and an inward-looking Britain that has, almost inexplicably, decided to retreat into postimperial isolation.’

During a cagey interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil, the Prime Minister refused to rule out making a divorce payment to the EU. She said the UK would stop making ‘large payments’ to Brussels after leaving but refused to commit to Vote Leave’s pledge to spend a £350million Brexit dividend on the NHS.

Chancellor Philip Hammond dismissed suggestions of a £50billion exit bill, saying he did not accept the ‘very large numbers bandied about in Brussels’.

In the Commons, Mrs May pledged to regain control of UK borders and promised to strike an early deal to guarantee the rights of 3.2million EU citizens in the UK and 1.2million Britons in Europe.

She acknowledged leaving the EU would see exporters forced to abide by rules Britain no longer had a say in deciding but she said firms exporting outside the EU already face this situation.

Downing Street denied her decision to raise the security issues was a ‘threat’, saying it was a ‘statement of fact’ that EU membership is the basis for substantial co-operation on security – an area where the UK is Europe’s acknowledged leader.

Mr Verhofstadt said: ‘Our security is far too important to bargain it against an economic agreement. I tried to be a gentleman towards a lady [Mrs May] so I didn’t even use or think about the use of the word blackmail.’

‘Historic moment, no turning back’

DAY one of the great Brexit poker game and the EU reacts with depressing predictability.

In her letter giving Brussels notice of our decision to quit, Theresa May was a model of reason, setting out ground rules for amicable talks aimed at reaching an agreement that will benefit all the peoples of Europe.

Yet her plea for mutual understanding and respect was met with a barrage of childish bombast, posturing and petulance from the other side of the Channel.

Indeed, it is clear from the outset that we are in for two years of tantrums and threats from the EU’s negotiators and the panjandrums of the Brussels bureaucracy.

But then what else could we expect from unaccountable officials whose raison d’etre is to discourage other nations from following Britain to freedom?

More worrying, perhaps, is Angela Merkel’s attempt to throw a spanner in the works by insisting that no trade deal can be negotiated until the terms of Britain’s withdrawal are clear.

Does she not understand that the two issues are inextricably intertwined, with the financial terms of our separation depending very largely on the nature of our future relationship?

Can she not also see that it’s vitally important for her own voters – not least German car manufacturers, who depend hugely on Britain’s lucrative market – to get a move on with discussing a free trade deal as quickly as possible?

But then these are early days and Mrs Merkel’s intransigence must be seen as her opening position in the battle of wills ahead.

The important thing now is for Mrs May and the British negotiators to hold their nerve.

As this paper has long argued, their strongest card is that Britain buys more from our partners than we sell to them. So it would be nothing less than crazy for EU nations to start a trade war that would inflict severe damage on their own creaking economies, still reeling from the unresolved euro crisis. They need us more than we need them.

But we have other trumps to play too. As the Prime Minister pointed out in her letter, concealing an iron fist in her velvet glove, our partners depend heavily on Britain for their security. After all, we are Europe’s foremost military power, with unrivalled expertise in intelligence and the fight against terrorism.

By repeatedly linking economic and security co-operation, she was delivering a warning that even the dullest-witted eurocrat couldn’t mistake: ‘If you play hard ball with us over trade, you’ll be putting your citizens’ lives at risk.’ Though some may feel queasy about issuing such a threat, Mrs May has at least shown she intends to pull no punches in the talks.

So, yes, there are high hopes of a deal before 2019. But though it won’t be a disaster if the talks break down, leaving us to fall back on World Trade Organisation rules, it is essential that we prepare for every eventuality.

This means pressing full speed ahead with negotiating deals with countries such as the US, Canada, India and Australia, which are queueing up to do business with us.

It also means stepping up investment in infrastructure, shoring up factories’ supply chains, developing technical skills and boosting productivity to make us fit to take on the world.

Indeed, we are not plunging ‘over a cliff’ as Nicola Sturgeon (who knows a thing or two about jumping into an abyss, given her sketchy independence plans) wailed yesterday. We’re leaping away from the edge. Now the real work starts to ensure that we land on our feet.