The Prime Minister has not yet guaranteed that European Union migrants already residing in Britain would be allowed to remain post-Brexit.
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‘That is not going to happen, ‘ he told The Times.
Meanwhile, UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon vowed to block any proposals for an EU army while Britain remains a member of the union.
The EU, a bloc of 500 million people, has been under siege since the 2008 global financial crash threw millions out of work and austerity policies undercut its claim that it alone guaranteed a better economic future.
After May took over from her predecessor David Cameron, she has been under enormous pressure to trigger Article 50 from Brexiteers in order to confirm Britain’s European Union exit process and therefore negate the huge political uncertainty looming over the nation. Or “Did you know that Brussels wants to settle a whole city’s worth of illegal immigrants in Hungary?”
Tory former attorney general Dominic Grieve, who supports the pro-single market Open Britain campaign, said: “The Government must make public all its internal analysis so Parliament and the country have a chance to scrutinise its decision-making”.
“It’s about the rights of ordinary people and workers, of those living in Europe, and so I can’t see any possibility of compromising on that very issue”.
In Bratislava, Mr Juncker insisted Britain can not get access to the European single market without accepting the free movement of workers.
The 27 leaders – minus British Prime Minister Theresa May – gathered at Bratislava’s towering castle overlooking the River Danube, determined to respond to the challenges of mass migration, security, globalisation and a stuttering economy.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has signaled that she could be ready to launch formal Brexit negotiations in January or February next year, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Friday, citing a recent talk with May.
“We are well prepared for these negotiations and we could in fact start these procedures even tomorrow”, he added, saying that the EU’s goal was “the closest possible future relations” with Britain while negotiating in the interests of the bloc.
While the message from the European Union was that free movement of people in Europe would remain, the main item on the agenda was migration from outside the bloc.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker this week proposed an EU defence headquarters and a common defence force, both ideas that Britain had previously nixed because they might overlap with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
“It’s about showing through deeds that we can become better”, she said, talking about “cooperation in the field of defense” in the same breath as the fight against terror, economic growth and job creation.
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If this wasn’t tough enough for the new PM, she’s now facing threats from four European countries that they will kibosh any Brexit deal with the EU unless she guarantees the right of their citizens to work in Britain.
