Brexit talks are ‘dead’
BRITAIN’S tumultuous divorce from the EU was again in disarray yesterday as the opposition Labour Party declared last-ditch cross-party talks dead as Prime Minister Theresa May’s premiership crumbled.
Nearly three years after the UK voted 52% to 48% in a referendum to leave the EU, it is still unclear how, when or if it will ever leave the European club it joined in 1973. The deadline to leave is October 31.
Brexit talks between May’s Conservative Party and Labour collapsed hours after May agreed on Thursday to set out a timetable for her departure in early June.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote to May yesterday informing her that the Brexit talks, which began on April 3, had “gone as far as they can” due to the instability of her government.
“We have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us,” Corbyn, a socialist who voted against joining the predecessor of the EU in 1975, wrote to May.
“Even more crucially, the increasing weakness and instability of your government means there cannot be confidence in securing whatever might be agreed between us,” Corbyn said.
He said Labour would oppose May’s deal when it returns to parliament early next month.
May’s hands have been tied, knowing that to make concessions to Labour would lead to fury in her divided party. Labour has feared any compromises on issues such as workers’ rights would be torn up by May’s successor.
| RABAT: A lawyer for the family of a Danish tourist who was found killed last year along with a Norwegian hiker, has asked the Moroccan state to guarantee compensation payments for the families of the Scandinavian victims.
Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway were found decapitated on December 17 near the village of Imlil, a hiking and trekking destination in the Atlas Mountains.
The judge presiding over the trial of suspects in the killings approved the lawyer’s request to issue a summons to the Moroccan state on Thursday.
“The state is responsible for the security of citizens and tourists on its soil,” lawyer Lhoucine Raji said. The family of the Norwegian victim did not hire a lawyer. |