Macron ends summit with Brexit warning
0 Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May review an guard of honour at Sandhurst yesterday to Clause 11, which keeps 111 devolved powers returning from Brussels at Westminster.
The warning was heard by Chloe Smith, the new Minister for the Constitution. “It was made plain to her that it is time for urgent action by the UK Government if they want to avoid a constitutional conflict,” Mr Crawford said. He added there was a “real prospect that peers would reject the EU Withdrawal Bill” without legislative consent from Scotland and Wales.
Mr Crawford’s Tory deputy on the committee, Adam Tomkins, said he was optimistic that a deal will be reached even though no draft amendments have been shared with devolved administrations.
Mr Tomkins said it was “not in the interests of either government” to refuse consent. “If it were to happen, it would significantly increase pressure on the SNP to reheat independence arguments,” he said. “They know that’s toxic in the polls.”
However, a senior SNP source said they did not expect Holyrood to pass a legislative consent motion, throwing Brexit into constitutional deadlock and potentially setting Scotland on course for a second independence referendum.
Meanwhile, it emerged that ministers cannot overrule the Lords if peers try to block Brexit legislation, putting preparations for the UK’S exit at risk.
The Parliament Act allows MPS to force through legislation rejected or changed by peers in the following parliamentary session. However, the current session was extended Emmanuel Macron has told the UK that it must choose between staying in the European single market and enjoying trade access for financial services, or risk the position of the City of London under a Canadastyle free trade deal.
At a press conference following a summit with Theresa May at the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, the French President said the UK could not enjoy the same trading terms as currently if it leaves the single market after Brexit.
The tough message risked putting a sour note at the end of a meeting designed to show the strength of Anglo-french relations, despite the UK’S exit from the EU.
The Prime Minister announced the UK would spend £45 million on security at the Calais frontier, increase efforts to reunify unaccompanied child migrants in France with family in Britain, and deploy helicopters to two years so MPS have time to pass Brexit laws needed by March 2019.
It means the government won’t be able to overrule the Lords on Brexit until the middle of 2019 - after the UK is due to leave. Scottish Labour peer Lord Foulkes the “unintended consequence” left ministers facing “some really intractable to support French troops fighting Islamist terrorists in Africa. Mr Macron offered to loan the 950 year-old Bayeux Tapestry to the UK.
But asked about the EU’S refusal to negotiate trade access for British financial services outside the single market, Mr Macron said: “The choice is on the British side, not on my side. They can have no differentiated access to financial services.
“If you want access to the single market, including the financial services, be my guest. But it means that you need to contribute to the budget and acknowledge European jurisdiction... this is the system already in place for Norway.”
Earlier, the two leaders held talks on security, cultural and scientific cooperation, and migration. Mrs May invited Mr Macron, on his first visit to the UK as president, for a pub lunch in her Maidenhead constituency. problems as a result”.
“[On Clause 11] it could be deal or bust, and that raises the stakes,” he said. Ministers have warned that the government may not be able to enforce regulations if the Withdrawal Bill isn’t in place by the time the UK leaves the EU.