German leaders demand Brexit clarity
Britain’s PM chairs his final Cabinet meeting
LONDON, July 12, (Agencies): German leaders stepped up the pressure on Britain’s incoming prime minister Theresa May on Tuesday by demanding she swiftly spell out when she will launch divorce proceedings with the European Union.
“The task of the new prime minister ... will be to get clarity on the question of what kind of relationship Britain wants to build with the European Union,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference.
Her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said clarity was needed quickly to limit uncertainty after Britain’s shock choice for ‘Brexit’, which has rocked the 28-nation bloc and thrown decades of European integration into reverse.
May, 59, will on Wednesday replace David Cameron, who is resigning after Britons rejected his advice and voted on June 23 to quit the EU. On arriving and departing from Cameron’s last cabinet meeting, she waved a little awkwardly from the doorstep of 10 Downing Street, shortly to become her home.
She will face the enormous task of disentangling Britain from a forest of EU laws, accumulated over more than four decades, and negotiating new trade terms while limiting potential damage to the economy.
Appointment
The pound was up 1.2 percent against the dollar at around $1.3150, boosted by the appointment of a new prime minister weeks earlier than expected after May’s main rival dropped out.
But it remains more than 12 percent below the $1.50 it touched on the night of the June 23 referendum, reflecting concerns that Brexit will hit trade, investment and growth.
The German leaders spoke after May’s ally Chris Grayling appeared to dampen any hopes among Britain’s EU partners that her rapid ascent might accelerate the process of moving ahead with the split and resolving the uncertainty hanging over the 28-nation bloc.
Grayling, the Leader of the House of Commons, said there was no hurry to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which will formally launch the process of separation and start the clock ticking on a two-year countdown to Britain’s actual departure.
“I think Article 50 should be triggered when we’re ready. The most important thing right now is we do what’s in our national interest,” Grayling told Sky News.
“We get ourselves ready for the negotiation, we decide what kind of relationship we want to negotiate, and then we move ahead and trigger Article 50. We’ll do it right, we’ll do it in a proper way, we’ll do it when we’re ready.”
Cameron and a host of ministers, policymakers and think-tanks had warned Britons before the referendum that going it alone would plunge the economy into a self-inflicted recession by cutting it off from the world’s biggest free-trade bloc.
They ignored him, delivering a surprise outcome that reflected antiestablishment sentiment and deep disenchantment with an EU that the Leave campaign portrayed as bureaucratic, undemocratic and mired in permanent crises.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday that the expected economic hit from Brexit could prompt the central bank to provide more stimulus. It is due to announce on Thursday whether it will cut its key interest rate, which has remained at 0.5 percent for more than seven years, or take other action.
The chief investment officer of BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, predicted Britain would fall into recession in the coming year.
“Recession is now our base case,” Richard Turnill said. “There’s likely to be a significant reduction of investment in the UK.”
May, who had favoured a vote to stay in the EU, was left as the last woman standing after three leading rivals from the referendum’s winning Leave campaign self-destructed in the course of a short-lived leadership race.
Rival
Her last rival, Andrea Leadsom, dropped out on Monday, removing the need for a nine-week contest to decide who would become leader of the ruling Conservative Party and prime minister.
May will become Britain’s second woman prime minister after Margaret Thatcher. One veteran of Thatcher’s cabinet described her last week as a “bloody difficult woman”, a comment that may have helped her by implying comparison with the “Iron Lady”.
Meanwhile, Cameron chaired a farewell Cabinet meeting Tuesday as moving vans pulled up to his 10 Downing St residence a day before he is replaced as leader following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
Ministers gathered for Cameron’s 215th and final weekly Cabinet session a day after Home Secretary Theresa May was confirmed as the new Conservative leader and prime minister-inwaiting.
Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said there had been a “touch of sadness” to the meeting, which saw May and Treasury chief George Osborne led tributes to Cameron.
Cameron’s spokeswoman, Helen Bower, said ministers banged the Cabinet table in approval and tribute at the end of the “warm and reflective” meeting.
Osborne and May cited Cameron’s achievements including legalizing same-sex marriage, reform of schools and an increased minimum wage — but Britain’s relationship with Europe looks set to define his legacy.
Cameron resigned after Britons voted June 23 — against his advice — to leave the EU. May will have to deal with the political fallout and oversee the complex process of separating from the bloc.
She will spend the day considering the makeup of her own Cabinet before she moves into 10 Downing St on Wednesday.
British media have focused on whether Osborne will keep his job in charge of the economy.