The bargaining begins
“All but leaderless”, Britain hurtled on Monday into the first day of Brexit talks, said The Times. Theresa May was still trying to secure her survival as PM by making a “confidence and supply” deal with the Democratic Unionist Party. Her negotiating team had been given “no clear goal or starting point”, since even with the DUP’S support she would not have a parliamentary majority for the hard version of Brexit she had committed to in January. It is “hard to overstate the turmoil and confusion at the heart of government”, or the long-term risks this poses “to British livelihoods and Britain’s status in the world”. Brexit Secretary David Davis kicked off the talks with the EU’S chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Brussels by giving in to a key European demand, said Dan Roberts in The Guardian: he agreed to delay discussions on a trade deal until the cost of the UK’S multibillion euro “divorce settlement” had been thrashed out. Davis put a brave face on it, saying: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” But it was quite a climbdown, given that he had earlier promised to turn the issue into the “row of the summer”.
During the election campaign, the details of the Conservatives’ Brexit policy were never very clear, said The Guardian. “But it was clear who was in charge of it: Theresa May.” Now no one can even say who holds the reins. In a speech at Mansion House on Tuesday, Chancellor Philip Hammond seemed to suggest that “the battle of Brexit” is under way in the Tory party. He was emphatic that “jobs and the economy” should be at the heart of the UK’S negotiating position, and set out a detailed prospectus. This included a comprehensive agreement on trade in goods and services; a transitional deal to avoid a “cliff-edge” Brexit when the negotiation period ends in 2019; frictionless customs arrangements; and “managed” migration to and from the EU. The Chancellor’s concern for economic security is far preferable to the Tories’ grandiose “pre-election guff” about Brexit Britain, unchained from the EU. Whether it can be translated into a deal is much less certain.
Obviously, Britain is now weaker than it was before the election, said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. “Obviously, some concessions will be made.” One, already signalled, might be to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in Britain. But the problem with many of the so-called compromises proposed by Remainers is that they would not allow us to regain control of our borders and our laws. The upshot would be “not an agreeable consensus”, but a “betrayal” of the referendum vote. Whatever kind of Brexit it pursues, the “big question” is whether May’s Government is resilient enough to survive the negotiations, said Andrew Hammond in The Wall Street Journal – to make the tough decisions needed to reach an agreement. Without “strong, constructive” leadership, the odds are growing that the UK will crash out of the EU without a deal.