Trump gives May a Brexit lift with trade promise
THERESA MAY has been handed a much-needed boost over her Brexit strategy after US President Donald Trump said trade with the UK would rise “very substantially” after it leaves the European Union.
In a speech yesterday announcing he will declare a national emergency to fulfil his pledge to construct a wall along the US-Mexico border, Mr Trump signalled Washington welcomed a new trade agreement with Britain and said “we are agreeing to move forward”.
His comments will be seen as a boost for Brexiteer hopes that Britain’s departure from the EU will enable successful free trade deals around the world.
The remarks came as France’s Europe Minister urged Britain to “hurry up” and decide whether it is leaving with or without a deal.
And a leading Tory opponent of EU withdrawal, ex-Attorney General Dominic Grieve, has said a dozen or more government Ministers could quit by the end of the month if Theresa May refuses to extend the Brexit negotiating period beyond March 29.
A DOZEN or more Government Ministers could quit by the end of the month if Theresa May refuses to extend the Brexit negotiating period beyond March 29, the former Attorney General has said.
In a damning intervention, Dominic Grieve said that the next round of Brexit votes on February 27 would be a “high noon” moment when resignations on this scale – which he said could include six Cabinet Ministers – might bring down Mrs May’s Government.
He was speaking as Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt made
clear his unwillingness to accept a no-deal departure, telling hardline Brexiteers in a tweet: “We are not leaving without a deal.
“If you want to leave, you’d better
agree one. In the next fortnight would help.”
Angry Tory loyalists have turned on the party’s Eurosceptics after Mrs May’s suffered another humiliating Commons defeat on Valentine’s Day, when MPs rejected her Brexit strategy.
Business Minister Richard Harrington accused the European Research Group, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, of “treachery” and said they were “not Conservatives” and should join former Ukip leader Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party.
Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood accused the ERG of acting as “a party within a party” and described their behaviour as “provocative”.
Downing Street insisted the
Prime Minister would continue with her negotiating strategy, with Ministers dismissing Thursday’s vote as no more than a “hiccup”.
There was fury among some Conservative MPs after an announcement by the pro-Brexit ERG moments before the crucial vote on Thursday evening that its members had taken a “collective decision” to abstain.
With some Remainers also failing to vote, and five Tory MPs voting with the opposition, the Government was defeated by 303 to 258.
Mr Grieve said the ERG “seem to be completely cavalier about the risks that the country might run if we leave with no deal”.
He told the BBC that he understood
a number of Ministers had already told Mrs May that if she was unable to secure a Withdrawal Agreement which could command the support of the
Commons, she should extend the two-year Article 50 negotiating period.
If she refused, he said “a dozen or even more” Ministers may resign,
including “up to half a dozen” from the Cabinet.
Asked yesterday whether this could bring down the Government, Mr Grieve said: “Yes, it could, and this isn’t a desirable outcome.
“The irony of all this is that most of us in the Conservative Party are sufficiently united to want to try to operate a coherent Government,” he said.
“But the truth is we’re finding it harder and harder to do.
“It starts to bring into question whether in fact the Government is able to operate in the national interest at all.”
He added: “We are facing a great crisis and we are not really looking at all the options for trying to resolve it.”