Urged by ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith to confirm that taking control of the UK’s borders was “not negotiable for any other deal”, he said Prime Minister Theresa May had “made it very plain that the current status of immigration can not go on and we will bring it to an end as part of this process”. However, as the PM has said many times in the past, a points-based system will not work and is not an option’.
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On Sunday May said the statement would be “about the work that the government has been doing over the summer and obviously how we are going to take that forward in shaping the sort of relationship we want with the European Union”. The “March for Europe” protesters are demanding a “pause” in the Brexit process and a continuation of close cultural and economic ties with Europe.
The comments offer the first glimpse into May’s stance on the hardest question thrown up by the referendum: how to tighten border controls with the European Union without losing access to its single market. It is about: place for Britain in the world.
Accused by opposition lawmakers of “waffling” and lacking detail, Mr Davis suggested there was little to lose to gain the restrictions over immigration despite warnings by European Union officials that Britain must accept the bloc’s four freedoms – including that of free movement – to be a member of the single market.
“Addressing Speaker John Bercow, she said: “[With] no evidence of sound planning, no detail whatsoever on deal they want to strike, Parliament must have more of a say on those issues, we must have a vote”.
He said: “Brexiteers wanted out of Europe but they did not have a plan for the day after or the days after that”.
She said the Australian trade minister would visit Britain this week for exploratory talks on a trade deal. “A points-based system means that people come in automatically if they just meet the criteria”.
Former Tory leader and prominent Brexit campaigner Iain Duncan Smith also insisted Mrs May has not “reneged”, and her attack on a points system had been “over-interpreted”.
She said the speech had described a “pipedream” and “rhetoric” rather than reveal a “strategy” for Brexit.
The petition wants the vote, which saw 52% of the country back the Leave campaign, to be re-run on the grounds neither side took more than 60% of the vote while the turnout was below 75%.
She added that the proposal by Japanese technology company SoftBank to buy Britain’s ARM Holdings for $32 billion was “the single biggest vote of confidence we have had in (Britain) in terms of inward investment since the referendum”.
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“This is not about accessing a shop, this is signing on to the four freedoms, the things that underpin the single market, and unless you sign on to those you do not get to access the single market and that could be – many are now saying – very hard”, he added.
