The Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman said: “It will be an opportunity in part to talk about the process of leaving the European Union, how we see the upcoming months, but also to talk about the upcoming October European Council and some of the issues that we expect to be on the agenda for that, such as migration, trade and where we are at with the situation in eastern Ukraine”.
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In his first update to the House of Commons on progress in preparing for withdrawal from the EU, Mr Davis was asked whether the United Kingdom could remain a member of the single market – something which is regarded as vital by many members of the business community, who fear tariffs on exported goods and services if Britain is excluded.
The PM can also expect questions over how Britain will control immigration after exiting the EU.
“It is not about the Norway model or the Swiss model or any other country’s model – it is about developing our own British model”, she said. “Services is just technically more complicated. just very, very hard to work out what the value is, how much is it worth that you change your regulation a bit?”, said Winters, adding that regulators would likely need to be involved in talks.
He suggested that Mr Davis’s position and that of the PM are incompatible.
She said: “What we will be doing is working for the best deal for the United Kingdom”.
And insiders pointed to the Prime Minister’s remarks previous year when she said that when European Union free movement rules were designed, it “meant the freedom to move to a job, not to look for work”.
May “said many times in the past, a points-based system [for immigration] will not work and is not an option”, her spokesperson said. SNP MPs heckled him with cries of “is that it?” while Anna Soubry also joined in from the Tory backbenches, insisting that MPs had been left “none the wiser about the government’s plans”.
“It is right that Number 10 should not give up on membership of the single market and no surprise that they had to slap down Mr Davis after his first public outing yesterday”.
“The Government must not let their immigration policy dictate their economic and trade policy – both must be considered together in the upcoming talks with the European Union”.
But his update to the House on the Brexit plans was met with derision from pro-EU MPs who claimed the Government was “making it up as it goes along”. Then there are the Britons who work in the EU’s trade directorate, although according to the European Commission website only 32 of the directorate’s 596 staff are British.
It comes after Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called for a trade deal to be set up as a matter of urgency. At her first global summit this week, she said Australia, India, Mexico, Singapore, China and South Korea had all welcomed talks about post-Brexit trade.
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Chairman of Migration Watch UK Lord Green of Deddington said: “The issue is confidence in the government’s intention to reduce immigration from the EU”.
