‘Expensive to reveal exit priorities’

UK’s PM offers lawmakers scrutiny of Brexit process

LONDON, Oct 12, (Agencies): Britain cannot reveal its top priorities in upcoming talks with the European Union on leaving the bloc, because doing so would be “expensive” for the government, Brexit minister David Davis said on Wednesday.

“If you tell your negotiator — your opposite number in negotiation — exactly what your priorities are, exactly what your top priority is, then it will make that top priority extremely expensive,” Davis told parliament.

“If you make pre-emptive indications that you are willing to make a concession on something, you actually reduce the value of that concession. So in many, many ways we cannot give details about how we are going to run the negotiation.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May has agreed to demands for parliament to debate her government’s plans to leave the European Union, but ruled out letting it vote on triggering the formal Brexit procedure.

Late on Tuesday, May moved to appease some lawmakers in her ruling Conservative Party by allowing a motion proposed by the opposition Labour Party for a “full and transparent debate” on how the government will enact the public vote to leave the EU.

Lucrative

The move spurred sterling, which has fallen 18 percent against the dollar since the June referendum, with investors concerned Britain is heading for a so-called “hard Brexit”, or a clean break from the bloc’s lucrative single market of 500 million consumers in order to control immigration.

But May, under pressure from Labour, other lawmakers and global financial markets to offer them more than her catch phrase of “Brexit means Brexit”, stopped short of promising a formal vote on her strategy before triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.

“We’ve always said that parliament has an important role to play,” May’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday morning.

“But we also believe this should be done in a way that respects the decision of the people of the UK when they voted to leave the EU on 23 June and does not undermine the negotiating position of the government.”

“There will not be a vote on triggering Article 50.”

Increasingly conscious that markets are moving on her words, May was clear in parliament that she would be “ambitious” in negotiations with the other 27 EU members to get the best deal.

“And that will include the maximum possible access to the European

The vote took many investors and chief executives by surprise, triggering the deepest political and financial turmoil in Britain since World War Two and the biggest ever market for firms to trade with and operate within,” May told parliament, a statement which helped sterling gain around a quarter of a cent against the dollar.

Appointed prime minister shortly after the referendum on EU membership to replace David Cameron who resigned, May has come under pressure to break with her policy of refusing to give a “running commentary”.

Lawmakers say by refusing to debate her strategy May is undermining Britain’s centuries-old democracy. The leader says she does not want to show her hand before starting some of the most complex negotiations London has ever undertaken.

Deal

Britain will see a deal with the European Union that will include maximum possible access to the bloc’s single market once it leaves the EU, May said on Wednesday.

“What we are going to do is be ambitious in our negotiation, to negotiate the best deal for the British people and that will include the maximum possible access to the European market for firms to trade with and operate within,” she told parliament, adding that the deal must also include curbs on immigration.

May also said an announcement earlier this month that the government would consider making it harder for British companies to employ workers from outside the EU was not about “naming and shaming” companies.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s ruling nationalists gather for their annual conference on Thursday with the issue of independence back on the table following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), has vowed to explore “all options” to protect Scotland’s place in the EU after Scots bucked the national trend by voting to remain in the bloc.

For many in the party, this means a second vote on independence from the rest of the United Kingdom — even though a first referendum two years ago saw voters reject independence by 55 percent.

On Friday, conference delegates in Glasgow will debate a motion warning that “if no viable solution to safeguard our membership as part of the UK exists, Scotland should prepare for a second independence referendum.”

Britain’s government faces a court challenge on Thursday that could delay Brexit as lawyers argue May cannot take the country out of the EU without a parliamentary vote.

England’s most senior judges will

one-day fall in sterling against the dollar.

The pound has fallen 28 cents since the night of the vote, dropping to $1.2215 on Tuesday. hear arguments brought by lawyers for a number of different claimants, including an investment fund manager, a hairdresser and an expatriate living in France.

May has condemned their challenge as an attempt to “subvert” the result of the June referendum when 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU.

But the claimants argue either that the vote was only “advisory” and must be implemented by elected lawmakers, or that only parliament can remove the rights accorded to Britons as EU citizens.

“Parliament has taken us into the European Union and only parliament can take us out,” said lawyer John Halford of Bindmans solicitors.

Most MPs campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU and, while many have now accepted the result, lengthy debates ahead of a vote could take months, upsetting the entire Brexit timetable.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has always stressed that access to the European Union’s single market requires that a country accept the bloc’s principle of the free movement of people, her spokesman said on Wednesday.

Asked if Merkel’s tone on Brexit had hardened in recent days due to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest comments on the issue, spokesman Steffen Seibert told a government news conference: “I will leave the interpretation up to you.”

“A key assertion of the chancellor in the last months has, however, always been that full participation in the EU internal market means that the country that wants such participation must also fully subscribe to the free movement of people,” he added.

Croatia’s president called for the country’s new government to adopt an outward looking stance on Tuesday and said she expected Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU to be long and difficult and required a tailor-made deal.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic named Andrej Plenkovic, head of the Croatia’s conservative HDZ party, as prime minister-designate on Monday.

Plenkovic now has just under a month to win parliament’s approval for his cabinet and must quickly work out a way to spur modest growth of about 2 percent in order to manage high public debt at about 85 percent of GDP and unemployment of 13 percent.

Speaking at the London school of economics Grabar-Kitarovic said she hoped the new government would confront the choice now facing many European countries of whether to be an open or a closed society by firmly remaining open.

Britain saw tourist numbers rise in July, with visits up 2 percent from the same month last year to 3.8 million. (RTRS)

‘Killer Clown’ craze hits UK:

The “Killer Clown” craze has spread to Britain, where police fear it will spike in the run-up to Halloween, and true clowns are beginning to speak out.

Police forces have been called to several incidents around the country involving pranksters dressing up as scary clowns to jump out and frighten people — in some cases, reportedly brandishing knives.

British clowns said they wanted defend the reputation of their profession in the face of the craze, which started in the United States.

“The joke now has gone a little bit too far,” Andy the Clown, who has been a full-time clown for 10 years, told AFP on Tuesday.

At a clown symposium last week in Barcelona, clowns discussed the craze and combating the threat to the image of clowning through using their networks and educating people, he said.

“The public are intelligent enough to know the difference between an idiot in a costume and someone you would invite into your home for a children’s birthday party,” said Andy — real name Andrew Davis.

British police have made an arrest in the case of a person in a clown costume who deliberately frightened people on London streets. (Agencies)