Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said the UK’s Brexit deal could be a Canadian-style agreement, with free trade for manufactured goods but not necessarily for services.
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Digital commissioner claims worsening economy could lead the United Kingdom to stay in the EU.
May outlined immigration as the “red line” for Brexit negotiations after a cabinet meeting at the British prime minister’s country residence Chequers in Buckinghamshire. We’ll be looking at how we can work to increase productivity, that’s one of the key issues that we want to address.
However, the local media said there are divisions in the Cabinet about the future relations of that country with the EU.
Earlier, Ms May appeared to rule out seeking an arrangement such as that enjoyed by Norway, which is outside the EU but is part of the European single market and allows free movement of people from the EU.
The Telegraph newspaper reported that the two sides have disagreed over Hammond’s view that access to the single market could be maintained “on a sector-by-sector basis”, with Britain retaining a favourable status for its big financial sector.
It comes amid speculation that Mrs May will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, starting formal Brexit talks, without first putting it to a vote of Parliament.
May is not expected to give MPs a vote on triggering Article 50, either.
THERESA May is set to meet with her senior Cabinet ministers to discuss department-by-department Brexit action plans.
Finishing her introduction, May added: “Can I just remind everybody that this really is a very significant moment for the country, as we look ahead to the next steps that we need to take?”
It comes after Downing Street said Britain would “welcome” Apple to the United Kingdom after the company was hit by an £11billion tax bill by the European Commission.
“I do not think Article 50 will be invoked”, he said.
Sir Hugo Swire told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “You need to get your ducks in a row before you know what it is you are going to renegotiate”.
If it was, that would go against so-called Brexit minister David Davis, who heads the new Department for Exiting the European Union, and trade minister Liam Fox.
The three men do not like one another much and, perhaps mischievously, May has instructed them to share the use of Chevening, a 115-room country mansion in Kent, southeast of London, that is normally assigned to the foreign secretary but that is now nicknamed Brexit Towers. “The crucial trade-off in the coming wrangling is likely to be between acknowledging many voters’ desire to see a reduction in European Union immigration, while ensuring British businesses can trade as freely as possible with our nearest neighbours”, says BBC political correspondent Chris Mason.
In other words, she is looking to retain all the perks of Britain staying within the Single Market.
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And she would be well advised to pay heed to a recent statement from Mr Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s Vice-Chancellor, who warned that Britain must be “made to pay” for Brexit, if only in order to discourage others from following the British model.
