Theresa May will today insist that Britain is allowed to begin striking global trade deals and registering new EU arrivals on the first day after Brexit.
Eurosceptics have voiced concerns over the Prime Minister’s plan for a two-year transition period following our official exit on March 29, 2019.
Brussels has said during the period the UK will have to remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and be forced to abide by freedom of movement rules. Critics say it is remaining in the EU in all but name.
But in a bid to allay fears among her backbenches, Mrs May will today tell MPs the country will start the process of going its own way during the transition.
In a statement to the Commons following a European Council summit in Brussels last week, Mrs May will welcome the ‘shared desire of the EU and the UK to make rapid progress on an implementation period’
In a further boost, it was reported last night that senior party figures could ask the PM to remain leader until the end of the transition period in 2021, shortly before the next election.
In a statement to the Commons following a European Council summit in Brussels last week, Mrs May will welcome the ‘shared desire of the EU and the UK to make rapid progress on an implementation period’.
‘This will help give certainty to employers and families that we are going to deliver a smooth Brexit,’ Mrs May will add.
‘As I proposed in Florence [in September], during this strictly time-limited implementation period which we will now begin to negotiate, we would not be in the single market or the customs union, as we will have left the European Union.
‘This will help give certainty to employers and families that we are going to deliver a smooth Brexit,’ Mrs May will add
But we would propose that our access to one another’s markets would continue as now, while we prepare and implement the new processes and new systems that will underpin our future partnership.
‘During this period we intend to register new arrivals from the EU as preparation for our future immigration system.
‘And we will prepare for our future independent trade policy by negotiating – and where possible signing – trade deals with third countries, which could come into force after the conclusion of the implementation period.’
EU sources have conceded that Britain would be allowed to start negotiating trade deals with other countries around the world during the transition, but have so far rejected the idea that these could be signed.
LABOUR’S MIGRATION MUDDLE
The shadow home secretary said businesses would be in a ‘terrible position’ if there was a ‘collapse’ in the number of eastern European migrants
Diane Abbott yesterday revealed immigration may not fall after Brexit under Labour.
The shadow home secretary said businesses would be in a ‘terrible position’ if there was a ‘collapse’ in the number of eastern European migrants.
Miss Abbott refused to commit to lowering the number of people coming into the country after Brexit, and told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘Both business and public services like health and education are saying we do indeed need these European migrants that are coming here … we have to listen to them.’
Asked to elaborate on calls by the party’s Brexit spokesman, Sir Keir Starmer, for ‘easy’ movement, Miss Abbott said Labour would put in place a ‘fair and reasonable’ system to manage migration.
She added: ‘It will be relatively less bureaucratic than some of the proposals the Government have made.’
A group of MEPs has also warned that plans to force EU nationals to add their names to a register in this period immediately after Brexit would be illegal and not acceptable to the European Parliament.
Mrs May yesterday declared she would ‘not be derailed’ from securing an ‘ambitious’ Brexit deal, following her defeat in the Commons last week when diehard Tory Remainers sided with the opposition. On Friday she insisted Britain was ‘well on the road’ to Brexit.
Remain supporters yesterday pledged to use the amendment to the EU withdrawal bill giving MPs power over a final Brexit deal to thwart the country’s departure.
Lord Malloch-Brown, a former UN deputy secretary-general who has been appointed chairman of anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, told The Guardian: ‘The aim will be to shift public opinion by the time MPs come next autumn to have the meaningful vote that was agreed last week.
WARNING OVER U.S. TURKEYS
By contrast, the approach in the UK and EU means hygiene standards are sufficiently high enough that they do not need to be disinfected
Families face having turkey washed in chlorine on the Christmas menu if imports from the US are allowed under a trade deal, researchers claimed.
A team of academics from the University of Sussex, Cardiff University and City University of London said it would be safer if the UK keeps European Union standards and argues future controls should be ‘stricter, not weaker’.
In a joint paper, they said American authorities allow produce to be washed disinfectants including chlorine, and cited statistics which show that 97 per cent of chicken breast in the US contains pathogens such as salmonella.
By contrast, the approach in the UK and EU means hygiene standards are sufficiently high enough that they do not need to be disinfected.
Co-author Professor Tim Lang, of City University, said: ‘We cannot support any weakening of UK food hygiene standards.’
‘We cannot know precisely the Brexit deal that the meaningful vote will be on, but it will be the moment to stop the train wreck.’
He pledged to help various anti-Brexit groups coordinate their activities, saying: ‘There will not necessarily be a big bang launch, but the New Year is likely to see a much more co-ordinated campaign and a more coherent, consistent message.
‘It will be both more pocketbook and more emotional, looking at issues like the risk to the NHS.
‘We need to sway public opinion nationally so that there is a majority to remain at the time of the vote in Parliament.
‘We also have to lobby in constituencies in a targeted way so we are reaching leave-voting MPs in constituencies where the majority voted remain, and we have to work in constituencies where remain MPs have been cowed by the support for leave in their seats.’
Best for Britain was set up in the wake of the Brexit vote using money and office space donated by Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson.