Britain’s June decision to leave the 28-country European Union sent financial markets into shock in anticipation of a recession as Britain enters a years-long process of tearing itself away from its biggest trading partner and forging a new global economic role.
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This lack of clarity reflects the divisions within ministerial ranks over what deal Britain should aim for.
Take, for example, the briefing put out by Downing Street last week after the Cabinet meeting in Chequers.
But he said that Washington’s focus was on the bigger prizes of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the troubled US-EU trade deal, while the United Kingdom had to make sealing a deal with Brussels its main priority.
Now some determined Brexiteers read this as Mrs May setting down a red line that she would only accept a deal that would end mass migration from the EU.
Let us look at what Mrs May said on her first outing on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday.
“I’ve been very clear that I think we need that period of time, that stability, to be able to deal with the issues that the country is facing and have that election in 2020”, she added. “What I want to do is build on that relationship”.
Now there is nothing particularly new or objectionable about a politician using opaque language to describe a half-formed policy.
Britain will pursue an immigration system that enables the government to decide who enters the country and not a points-based system that gives an automatic right to those who meet certain criteria, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday.
“Brexit isn’t about making the best of a bad job”.
In a 15-page report published on the eve of a summit of the Group of 20 big economies in China, a Japanese government task force formed to respond to “Brexit” also warned of a possible outflow of drug research and development investment from Britain, though it said it expected the British government to handle its exit from the bloc smoothly.
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But these campaigns are unlikely to find support in Government where the Prime Minister Theresa May has again this week restated that “Brexit means Brexit” and clarified that this is also likely to include the removal of Freedom of Movement for European Union nationals. But it can also be used to finesse a deal that might otherwise prove hard to achieve.
