Commons return plan attacked
The news comes as a third round of trade talks between the UK and the EU ends with both sides appearing to have made little progress in resolving their differences.
A deadline is looming in June for the EU to decide if it thinks a deal is possible by the end of the year.
Northern Ireland is set to continue to follow EU single market rules on agricultural and manufactured goods after Brexit, while the rest of the UK has the ability to diverge from the end of this year.
Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost briefed ministers on the latest round of discussions – which ends on today – at the weekly meeting of the Cabinet yesterday.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the EU was continuing to insist on continued access to UK fishing waters – something the government is determined to resist – as part of any agreement.
“Cabinet agreed that we won’t agree to demands for us to give up our rights as an independent state, especially when the EU has shown through agreements with other countries like Canada that these controls are not necessary,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Brussels has launched legal action against the UK for its “failure to comply” with European Union rules on free movement.
The European Commission sent a formal notice to the UK – the first stage of infringement proceedings – giving the government four months to “address the shortcomings” it has identified.
The UK has failed to “comply with EU law on the free movement of EU citizens and their family members” since 2014, according to the infringement decision.
It states: “UK national legislation limits the scope of beneficiaries of EU free movement law in the United
Kingdom as well as the possibilities for EU citizens and their family members to appeal administrative decisions restricting free movement rights.”
Cabinet minister Michael Gove hit back in a letter to the EU Commission, warning Brussels that there was a “serious risk” that the rights of UK citizens living in Europe were not being protected.
Mr Gove accused the EU of allowing a “major imbalance” in legal guarantees for each other’s citizens.
He claimed information available to UK nationals “varies significantly in content, scale and accessibility” and said several EU member states had “not established telephone lines or contacted UK nationals”.