We WILL walk away! May defies the Brussels bullies
THERESA May yesterday repeatedly insisted she will walk away from Brexit talks if Britain is offered a bad deal – after Brussels accused the Prime Minister of living in a ‘different galaxy’.
On Saturday, in an attempt to show their unity of purpose, the other 27 EU member states took just four minutes to agree their stance.
Meeting for the first time since the Prime Minister triggered Article 50, they burst into applause after approving guidelines for the UK’s ‘orderly withdrawal’.
In briefings, EU officials stressed how difficult the talks would prove and insisted the UK would be required to agree the divorce ‘bill’ for Brexit – which has been put at up to £50billion – before beginning trade talks.
Following the announcement, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker accused Mrs May, of ‘underestimating’ how complex the process would be.
It was also reported that he told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Mrs May was in a ‘different galaxy’ following his meeting with the Prime Minister at Chequers last week.
Yesterday Mrs May said the comments showed the negotiations would be ‘tough’ and proved why it was important she has a strong mandate from the public at the General Election. She told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘What the EU leaders are very clear about is, yes, they do want to start discussions about money.
‘I’m very clear that at the end of the negotiations we need to be clear not just about the Brexit arrangement, the exit, how we withdraw, but also what our future relationship is going to be.’
She was asked by Mr Marr whether she stood by her comment in a speech in January that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’.
Mrs May replied: ‘Yes I do. Look, I’m not in a different galaxy but what this shows and what some of the other comments we’ve seen coming from European leaders shows is that there are going to be times when these negotiations are going to be tough.
‘And that’s why you need strong and stable leadership in order to conduct those negotiations and get the best deal for Britain. I’m confident we can get a deal.’
She repeated her comments later when interviewed by Robert Peston on ITV1.
Mrs May also brushed off the idea that the UK would have to settle the ‘ Brexit bill’ before embarking on trade talks.
She pointed to the EU’s own position that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’, and noted the comments from EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malm- strom, who said she thought a trade deal would be done.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said the talks would be ‘tough and, at times, even confrontational’, adding: ‘There are already people in Europe who oppose these aims and people at home trying to undermine them.’
In an eight-page document outlining its position, the EU said it would ‘prepare itself to be able to handle the situation if the negotiations were to fail’.
The guidelines include the suggestion Northern Ireland would be offered EU membership if it voted to join the Irish Republic. They also suggest Spain would have a veto over Gibraltar’s relations with the bloc. Both suggestions have annoyed British officials.
‘Negotiations will be tough’
There was more than a hint of the bizarre about the meeting at which 27 eU leaders set out their negotiating position on Brexit.
After getting round the conference table in Brussels, they deliberated for just four minutes before issuing a set of absurdly draconian demands. Then, like some 1970s meeting of the Chinese Communist party, they erupted into a protracted round of applause and self-congratulation, as if they had done something terribly clever.
In fact, what they presented was not so much a negotiating position as an ultimatum to Britain – pay a £50billion penalty, guarantee the rights of all eU citizens living in the UK, give Spain a veto on the future of Gibraltar and promise not to enforce border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
And they continued talking tough after the meeting, both directly and through a series of carefully choreographed media briefings. Britain would have to pay a huge price for leaving, they said, and Theresa May was ‘delusional’ if she thought the eU would enter trade talks before the cash was stumped up.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the insufferably pompous, cognac- loving head of the european Commission, spoke gravely of an ‘early crash’ in negotiations unless we acquiesced. european Council president Donald Tusk said it was time for Britain to ‘get serious’.
But Britain is already deadly serious, Mr Tusk. Serious about leaving the eU, regaining control of our borders and throwing off the shackles of the european Court. If we have to do that without a trade deal in place, as Mrs May stated again yesterday, we will do so and no amount of bullying or empty threats from Brussels will change that. Unlike Mr Tusk and Mr Juncker, Mrs May has a democratic mandate and she intends to honour it.
These ludicrous blowhards should also remember that Britain imports billions of pounds a year more in goods and services from the eU than we export to them. So German car makers, French wine producers and Irish farmers have more to lose from a trade war than UK manufacturers.
Of course, there is another agenda. With euroscepticism rampant across the continent, the eU high command wants to punish Britain for leaving as a warning to other member states not to follow suit. They are terrified that a blast of democracy could soon destroy their cosy little club.
The Mail is confident Mrs May will not be deflected by these cynical tactics but she needs the full support of the British people in the difficult negotiations to come. The best way to strengthen her hand is to give her a resounding majority on June 8.