Labour Party accused Prime Minister Theresa May of lacking the support within her Conservative Party to deliver the Brexit transition period she’s proposed, and urged her to work instead with the opposition to pave the way for one.
Keir Starmer, the party’s Brexit spokesman, wrote to May on Monday telling her there was a “sensible majority” in Parliament for a two-year transition. That would allow Britain to stay inside the European Union’s single market and customs union after 2019 while it completed negotiations for its future relationship with the bloc. He said the opposition to such an arrangement came from Conservatives.
“Over recent weeks, it has become increasingly clear that you alone do not have the authority to deliver a transitional deal with Europe and to take the necessary steps to protect jobs and the economy,” Starmer wrote in the letter, which was released by his office.
While May is unlikely to welcome Labour’s offer, it highlights the weakness of her position. When the EU Withdrawal Bill returns to Parliament on Tuesday, it faces hundreds of proposed amendments to be considered over eight days of debate. Even with the backing of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, May only has a slim majority. Tories who want to keep close ties to the EU have put their names on many of the measures, suggesting the government will have to back down or be defeated.
The bill returns to the House of Commons with May having lost two Cabinet ministers to different scandals in the past fortnight. The Sunday Times reported Sunday that 40 Conservative lawmakers now back a challenge to her leadership, just eight short of the number needed to trigger a vote.
Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday reported that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove have written a joint memo to May, warning that the government wasn’t working hard enough on Brexit and insisting that the transition should last two years at most.
Gove declined to discuss the letter when asked about it on the BBC, beyond confirming its existence. But he did signal a willingness to accept higher payments to the EU if that was the price of a Brexit deal.
“I wouldn’t block the prime minister in doing what she believed was right,” Gove said, adding that May and Brexit Secretary David Davis “should be given the flexibility they need in order to secure that good deal.”
Davis was more reticent, telling Sky that the public “would not want me to just come along and give away billions.” The idea that the U. could offer more has come as Brexit talks remain stalled. Davis waved off the suggestion from EU negotiator Michel Barnier that progress was needed in the next fortnight.
“In every negotiation, each side tries to control the timetable,” Davis said. “The real deadline on this, of course, is December.” That’s when EU leaders will meet to decide whether the U. has made sufficient progress to move on to the next stage of talks.
Barnier, meanwhile, told the French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the Dec. 14 European Council meeting could be postponed to allow more time for talks. He warned that everyone should start to prepare for a “no deal” Brexit. “The absence of a deal is more and more openly evoked in London,” Barnier said.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in an interview with Newstalk on Sunday that if talks drifted into next year, “so be it.” In a separate interview with broadcaster RTE that aired on Sunday, Varadkar said Ireland wouldn’t be split off from other EU countries.
“The one thing we’ve managed to do in the 18 months since the referendum is to totally align ourselves with all 27 member states,” Varadkar said. “From Berlin to Bucharest, they’re all behind us, and that puts us in a very strong position.”
In an effort to prepare for a post-Brexit world, Trade Secretary Liam Fox will use a visit to the United Arab Emirates on Monday to announce that the total level of financial guarantees available to British exporters will double to 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion), according to his office.
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