May urged to put brakes on Brexit as talks begin
SENIOR Welsh figures have made an eleventh-hour plea and called on Theresa May to apply the brakes on Brexit talks, which begin today.
They believe “catastrophic” damage will be inflicted on the UK economy and accuse the Prime Minister of insulting the electorate by “acting as if nothing has changed” despite having lost a majority in this month’s shock election result.
The plea comes as Brexit Secretary David Davis said he will be calling for a “deal like no other in history” as he heads to Brussels to launch formal negotiations for Britain’s exit from the EU.
Talks with the European Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier will focus on the status of expats, the UK’s “divorce bill” and the Northern Ireland border.
But former Welsh MEP and Cynon Valley MP Ann Clwyd will be in Brussels this week to petition the European Parliament and urge the institution to push for a second referendum.
Ms Clwyd said the start of negotiations should have been delayed.
She said: “I don’t think they have prepared enough.”
Fellow former MEP Eluned Morgan said Mrs May’s decision to press ahead was “naive”.
STAFF working in at least one Welsh Conservative office in Wales have received anonymous phone calls accusing the party of “killing the kids” who died in the Grenfell Tower fire, we have been told.
The revelation comes as Theresa May is facing a battle to remain Prime Minister amid concerns within the Conservative Party over her handling of the disaster and mounting pressures over Brexit negotiations which start today.
Mrs May is seen by many to have appeared insensitive when she failed to meet survivors in the immediate aftermath of the fire at the west London tower block which killed dozens of residents.
The Conservatives at national and local levels have also been criticised for allegedly adopting a lax attitude towards fire safety.
A senior Welsh Conservative source told us: “There have been calls received by staff accusing the Conservative Party of being responsible for the deaths at Grenfell Tower. It is outrageous how this tragedy is being politicised.
“Of course what happened is appalling, and it’s important that there’s a full investigation. If there has been negligence of any kind, then those responsible should be held to account. But it’s wrong to accuse people before the inquiry has determined what happened,”
The source also suggested that Mrs May was being criticised unfairly because she was not of the “Facebook generation” who found it easy to talk about their feelings publicly and show emotion in front of cameras.
“She’s of an older generation that’s not used to that. It doesn’t mean she’s inhuman or doesn’t feel the tragedy as others feel it,” said the source.
A neighbour of those who died in Grenfell Tower described Mrs May as “cold like a fish” when she spoke about the tragedy.
Meanwhile, in an article for the Sunday Times, Clwyd West Tory MP David Jones, who was sacked by Mrs May from his role as a Brexit minister after the election, warned that she should not give in to those who want her to soften her line on the terms of leaving the EU.
He stated that any deal involving continued membership of the EU Single Market or the Customs Union would be a “betrayal of trust” and risk “a whirlwind of public anger”.
In the article, Mr Jones dismissed “agonised” debate over what sort of arrangements the UK Government should aim for in the talks, claiming that the British people had now voted twice to back Brexit.
He wrote: “If there remained any doubt as to the wish of the British people to leave the EU, it was dispelled by the outcome of this month’s general election.
“The manifestos of both major parties were committed to leaving.
“Despite no party securing an overall majority, one thing is clear: more than 80% of the electorate voted for parties pledged to take Britain out of the EU. The referendum vote was unequivocally endorsed by the outcome of the election. The clearest possible mandate for Brexit has been given to both Government and Parliament.”
Mr Jones added: “There are siren calls from proponents of “soft Brexit” for continued UK membership of the single market and customs union. They should not be heeded. That would, in reality, be a non-Brexit.
“Parliament has a duty to the people of this country to respect the clear instructions they have given. Pursuing anything less than the restoration of parliamentary sovereignty, the control of our borders and the capacity to strike trade deals with countries across the globe would rightly be seen as a betrayal of trust. It would destroy confidence in our political system. All parties would reap the whirlwind of public anger.
“Negotiations with the EU begin this week. The government must hold fast to the prime minister’s vision set out at Lancaster House. Parliament must support it. Brexit really must mean Brexit.”
An unnamed former Minister told the Sunday Times that Mrs May had 10 days to make it clear that she would not water down the Government’s position on Brexit.
The ex-Minister said the Queen’s Speech should decide whether Ms May can remain as Prime Minister: “She’s going to have to go sooner rather than later.
“The critical moment is June 28 and 29, when there are votes on the Queen’s speech,” the politician said. “If it looks like they will be lost, you have to strike.”
Monmouth MP David Davies said now was the time to calm down: “I think we need to be flexible and not hung up with these terms ‘soft Brexit’ and ‘hard Brexit’.
“So far as I am concerned, people have voted to come out of the EU, so the only requirement of any deal is that the UK should end up outside.
“We need to negotiate the best deal we can and should be aiming for a non-tariff agreement with the EU so that we can buy and sell goods and services without hindrance.”
Mr Davies said he would be happy with a deal that involved migrants coming to the UK if they had prearranged jobs, but they should not be immediately entitled to benefits and certainly should not be able to claim allowances for children living outside the UK.
Chancellor Philip Hammond refused to say how long he believes Theresa May will remain in number 10 as he criticised the way the election campaign was run.
Mr Hammond, who was barely visible in the run up to the June 8 vote, said the Conservatives would have “probably done better” if they had focused on its economic record.
He said his role in the campaign had not been the “one I would have liked it to be”. He told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “I’m not going to repeat to you the private conversations I had with Theresa May on Friday. Yes, it’s true that my role in the election campaign was not the one I would have liked it to be. I did a lot of travelling around the country.
“I met lots of very interesting people, I heard lots of interesting stories. I would have liked to have made much more of our economic record, which I think is an excellent one, creating 2.9 million new jobs and getting the deficit down by three quarters.”
TODAY, just four days short of the anniversary of last year’s referendum, Brexit talks are due to begin in Brussels.
From the UK’s point of view, the omens are not auspicious.
It was Theresa May who justified the General Election by asserting that she needed a strong mandate to enhance her negotiating position. We all know what happened. Many find it strange that despite the humiliating loss of her overall majority, Mrs May has not resigned. On her own terms, she is surely a failure, and her continuation in office is against the national interest that she referred to repeatedly during her lacklustre campaign.
A deal has yet to be finalised with the DUP, leaving us without the strong and stable leadership that she also promised. But Article 50 has been triggered, and the Government has clearly decided that postponing the start of negotiations would be a show of weakness too far.
While all of us hope that a deal will be possible that doesn’t damage the UK’s economy, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the two negotiating teams are not equally balanced.
In terms of bilateral trade, we are a market of 60 million consumers while the EU27 have 440 million. In simple terms, we need them more than they need us.
But the terms of a future trading agreement will not be discussed until three other matters have been settled: the residency rights of EU citizens who live in the UK and of UK citizens who live elsewhere in the EU; the terms of the so-called divorce bill; and future arrangements relating to the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
Inaugurating a process that is likely to become a familiar pattern, EU sources have revealed that the UK has accepted that these three issues must have priority in the negotiations. At the same time, the UK’s team was seeking to maintain for public consumption its view that the terms of a future trading agreement should be discussed in parallel.
None of the three top agenda items are easy ones for the UK team. The remnants of Ukip and the hardest of hard Brexiteers will be quick to shout “traitor” if anything is agreed that seems like a concession to the EU. A mantra used by many in the Leave camp is that the UK should not pay the EU a single penny, ignoring the fact that the current multi-year EU budget was agreed on the basis that the UK would be contributing towards it for the whole period. Reneging on an existing financial commitment would be a dreadful start to negotiations that are difficult enough. In fact, the negotiations would end there and then, with the UK forced to accept WTO tariffs. Getting a practical deal for existing migrants could be imperilled by British bloody-mindedness while the feasibility of having an open border between the two parts of Ireland if the UK leaves the Customs Union is a contradiction in terms that nevertheless is the official policy of Mrs May’s would-be partners the DUP.