Scottish Tories in Brexit split as ministers deny transition will be endless
0 Labour MP Chuka Umunna was scathing about plans There will be a fixed end date for the post-brexit transition period, UK ministers have pledged, after critics claimed the government’s position paper for upcoming negotiations left the door open to an “indefinite” hiatus.
PRO-EU Labour MP Chuka Umunna said the document was the “final nail in the coffin of the idea that Brexit means ‘taking back control’,” as it does not set out a firm end date.
The government has previously stated that the period should be “strictly time-limited”.
The negotiating guidelines alsofailtorejectaneudemand that European nationals arriving in the UK after Brexit day are offered the same residency rights as those currently resident in Britain. A Downing Street spokesman said both issues were subject to negotiation and that its position had not changed.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Theresa May faced a rare attack from Jeremy Corbyn on Brexit, with the Labour leader making light of David Davis’ claim that leaving the EU “will not plunge Britain into a Mad Max-style world”.
“Doesn’t the Prime Minister feel he could set the bar just a little bit higher?” Mr Corbyn asked.
Mrs May said the UK wants to “take back control of our borders, our money and our laws” via Brexit, adding: “The only fiction around in relation to Brexit and the EU is the Labour Party’s front bench who can’t even agree with themselves.”
Divisions have appeared within the Scottish Conservative group at Westminster over Brexit, with one of Ruth Davidson’s MPS insisting that he would follow his own judgment.
Four of the party’s 12 Scottish back bench MPS have supported a letter signed by 63 Tories in total demanding full regulatory freedom from the EU from Brexit day.
Alister Jack, one of the signatories, told the BBC: “I hope that Ruth is supporting [the Prime Minister’s Brexit policy]... she does not tell us all how we have to think or how we have to vote – we vote with our consciences as members of parliament and we stand up for the things we believe in.”