May loses Brexit legislation vote

European firm wins contract for post-Brexit UK passports

LONDON, April 18, (Agencies): Britain’s upper house of parliament inflicted an embarrassing defeat on Theresa May’s government on Wednesday, challenging her refusal to remain in a customs union with the European Union after Brexit.

The House of Lords voted 348 to 225 in favour of an amendment to her Brexit blueprint, the EU withdrawal bill, which would require ministers to report on what efforts they had made to secure a customs union by the end of October.

The prime minister, who has struggled to unite her Conservatives over Brexit, has said Britain will leave the EU’s single market and customs union after it quits the bloc next March so that London can negotiate its own free trade deals.

That stance has widened divisions within the party and raised the prospect of a defeat in parliament’s upper House of Lords, where the Conservatives do not command a majority.

Some Lords, from all parties, have indicated their support for an amendment to her Brexit blueprint, the EU withdrawal bill, which would require ministers to report what efforts they had made to secure a customs union by the end of October.

It does not explicitly say that Britain must reach a deal on such a union. Conservative lawmaker David Jones described it as an attempt “to give oxygen” to EU supporters in the lower house.

“It is a very strange amendment. Frankly it would not stop Brexit and it wouldn’t require us to stay in the customs union,” he told Reuters, adding he was not overly concerned by the vote.

The government is expected to suffer several defeats in the Lords over the remaining stages of the debate in the coming weeks.

Leader for the main opposition party in the Lords, Angela Smith, said the upper house’s amendments were a chance to offer May “an opportunity to bring forward sensible changes in response to concerns raised previously in the Lords”.

“A failure to do so however, will amount to kicking the can down what could be a very rocky road,” she said in a statement.

If the government is defeated, the bill will return to the House of Commons, where the prime minister could try to get support for a reversal of the amendment. Both houses have to agree on the final wording of the bill before it can become law.

A vote in the Commons could come

viewed as a potential successor when she steps down.

He set up a company in September last year with his wife, which was later used as early as next month and would add pressure on May — some of whose own lawmakers want Britain to stay in a customs union with the EU — as talks start on a future trade deal with the bloc.

After losing the Conservative Party’s majority in an ill-judged election last June, May relies on the support of a small Northern Irish party to pass legislation.

Debate over remaining in a customs union with the European Union has become one of the main flashpoints in the Brexit debate, which has sowed divisions across Britain.

The main opposition Labour Party says it would want a new customs union if it was in charge of the Brexit negotiations. May’s trade minister, Liam Fox, and others see such a deal as anathema if it prevents London negotiating its own trade deals.

But a customs union that sets external tariffs for goods imported into the EU, and allows them to flow freely, would offer a solution to the problem of ensuring no return to a hard border with the bloc on the island of Ireland.

According to one of her former officials, May could seek a compromise on a customs deal if it meant safeguarding the union of the United Kingdom by preventing the return of a hard border or allowing Northern Ireland to effectively become isolated from mainland Britain by keeping its regulations in line with the EU.

Asked if May had a message for peers, her spokesman said he would not pre-empt parliament. But he added: “The PM ... has been very clear that the British people voted to leave the EU and expects us to sign trade deals around the world.”

Meanwhile, Britain must come up with a solution for the Irish border after Brexit or there will be no divorce deal or transition period, EU President Donald Tusk warned on Wednesday.

Finding a way to avoid border checks between EU member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland after Britain leaves the bloc is proving one of the thorniest issues in the negotiations.

Former Polish premier Tusk said he wanted to “use the positive momentum” in recent negotiations to finally settle issues including Ireland.

“The UK’s decision on Brexit has caused the problem, and the UK will have to help solve it,” Tusk told the European Parliament in a report on a summit of EU leaders last month.

“Without a solution, there will be no

to buy seven flats along the south coast of England. But he did not declare his stake in the company until six months later.

A spokesman for the department for withdrawal agreement and no transition.”

At the summit EU leaders approved guidelines for a 21-month transition period after Brexit happens in March 2019, and for the next phase of talks.

But they also set a June deadline for progress on Ireland.

Britain says it is leaving the EU’s single market and customs union, but the prospect of a “hard” border in Ireland has sparked fears for the fragile peace on the island.

The EU and Britain have agreed a “backstop” that Northern Ireland would remain part of the EU’s customs union if there is no better idea — but London is deeply opposed to this actually happening.

LONDON:

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A Franco-Dutch company on Wednesday won a contract to make British passports after the country leaves in the EU, in a blow for Brexit campaigners.

“The 11.5 year contract has been awarded to Gemalto after a rigorous, fair and open competition,” Britain’s interior ministry said in a statement.

The £260 million ($370 million, 299 million euros) contract represents a significant saving compared to the £400 million 10-year deal signed with British firm De La Rue in 2009.

Gemalto, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and listed on the French and Dutch stock exchanges, will be tasked with designing and producing new blue-coloured passports.

The return of blue British passports in place of burgundy-coloured ones synonymous with the European Union was hailed as a symbolic reclamation of sovereignty for those backing Britain’s exit from the bloc.

UK passports had dark blue covers from 1921, but Britain switched to burgundy from 1988, in common with other passports of what was then the European Community.

Picking a foreign firm over a UK manufacturer provoked an outcry in Britain by some politicians and the country’s pro-Brexit newspapers.

Brexit supporters have said it would be a “national humiliation” if British passports were made in the EU.

A petition run by the Daily Mail to keep production in Britain has topped 330,000 signatures.

Britain’s interior ministry said earlier this month that it had extended the bidding process by two weeks amid the backlash and following a request from De La Rue.

health was not immediately available for comment. (RTRS)

‘Windrush gen part of us’:

Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday the “Windrush generation”, people from the Caribbean who came to Britain as children after World War Two, were British and her government would not tell them to leave the country.

The Windrush generation were invited to Britain to plug labour shortfalls between 1948 and 1971 but some of their descendants have been caught up in a tightening of immigration rules overseen by May in 2012 when she was interior minister.

“These people are British, they are part of us,” May told parliament, repeating her apology to 12 Caribbean nations she made on Tuesday. “I want to say sorry to anyone who has had confusion or anxiety felt as a result of this.”

May, a former interior minister, told parliament the government was doing all it could to help those people who had been wrongly labelled illegal immigrants.

The opposition Labour Party demanded to know whether she was in charge when migrants’ identity documents were destroyed by the Home Office (interior ministry), but on Wednesday May told parliament that it had happened in 2009 when the opposition Labour Party was in government. (RTRS)