May’s day-long British tour to promote Brexit

The Prime Minister will take to the road to listen to the opinions of families, farmers and migrants

‘In 12 months, we will be leaving the EU and as that becomes real for people, they will be asking what it means for them’

THERESA MAY will mark the one-year countdown to Brexit with a day-long tour of the UK during which she will meet families, workers, farmers and EU migrants.

The Prime Minister will begin her 15hour tour at 7am on Thursday in Scotland before flying to visit Wales and Northern Ireland, with the trip likely to end in the South East.

Mrs May will use the tour to hear people’s views on Brexit and explain how leaving the European Union will improve their lives.

She will also set out how she plans to strengthen Britain’s bonds as a nation by bringing the benefits of Brexit to every part of the UK.

The tour will take place on March 29, exactly a year before Britain formally leaves the European Union in 2019.

It will be followed by a series of visits by Cabinet ministers. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, will travel to financial communities in Leeds, Edinburgh, Bristol and London.

Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, will meet fishermen on a coastal tour and visit farming communities. His meetings with fishermen could be particularly heated after the government conceded that Britain would not have control of its waters during a transition period after Brexit.

Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, will talk to those working in aviation, rail and the haulage industry about how Brexit will work for them.

A Downing Street source said: “It is equally important that we spend the months leading up to Brexit strengthening our own union of nations. In 12 months we will be leaving the EU and as that becomes real for people it is right that they will be asking what

Brexit means for them.

“That is why Cabinet ministers will be meeting people from all walks of life, listening to their views and explaining how we can secure a deep and special partnership with the EU that will strengthen our union, bring communities together, grow our economy and keep our people safe.”

On Thursday, Jacob Rees-mogg, a Tory MP and the leader of a 60-strong group of Eurosceptics, will warn the Prime Minister that failing to deliver a clean Brexit would be a national humiliation similar to the Suez crisis.

He will say it would represent the “most almighty smash to the national psyche that could be imagined”.

He is also expected to say that reducing the number of unskilled EU migrants coming to the UK could see the living standards of the poorest in Britain rise by 15 per cent when their jobs are “taken by migrants from the EU”.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, denied that the UK would have a Norway-style relationship with the EU.

“It will be nowhere like Norway,” he said. “This will not really look like any other deal as it stands at the moment.

“It will be a free-trade deal, a comprehensive one, the most comprehensive one ever. Even the European Union is using words similar to that.

“That would deliver us a lot of access, but it will not be like Norway.”

Mr Davis also suggested European nations were likely to become increasingly divided as negotiations move on to the future relationship between the UK and the EU. Although he said the progress meant it was “very highly probable” there would be an agreement, “you can never stop making arrangements” for a potential no-deal scenario. He explained that it was like insurance, adding: “You don’t expect your house to burn down, it’s less than a one in 100,000 chance, but you have house insurance anyway.”