The former London mayor and leader of the Brexit campaign was expected to run for prime minister after the electoral victory of his side on June 23.
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Tuesday’s vote will eliminate one of the five contenders, but it will also measure the relative strength of the survivors, including the presumed front-runner, Home Secretary Theresa May.
The group of campaigners calls for all leadership contenders to make a “clear and unequivocal” statement reassuring the three million citizens who are facing anxiety over their future, as well as a pledge to fight for a similar deal for United Kingdom citizens living in the other 27 European Union countries.
Earlier, Mr McDonnell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the move could undermine Brexit negotiations: “You are creating us nearly as a European tax haven and I think that will undermine our negotiations for a constructive way forward in Europe”.
“The Prime Minister must not wait to sort this as it is causing great anxiety for European Union citizens living here and British citizens living overseas”, she said.
We’re getting rather used to not being able to offer you straight answers when it comes to Brexit, as our politicians continue to disagree on what it actually means.
The vote to leave has prompted a battle within the ruling Conservative party to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron who said he would resign after the result.
But they are split on what the negotiating priority should be, with a third marking immigration controls as their number one issue but 37 per cent insisting staying in the single market takes precedence.
Schaeuble underlined EU leaders’ insistence that any country wanting that access has to accept the free movement of European workers – a notion that is strongly opposed by those who wanted Britain to leave the EU.
Mrs May refused to set a date on when to bring net immigration levels down to tens of thousands, in line with Tory Party targets.
But now we have effectively given up our place in the line, he said.
He said the free movement of people across Europe – a core principle of the European Union but a major concern for many Britons – should not be on the table in negotiations about a trade deal with the European Union after Brexit.
The peers urged the Government not to attempt to dictate the shape of any trade negotiations “except to say we are ready to negotiate”.
“To propose a long period before we leave the EU is inviting the very economic uncertainty and chaos which any sensible European, in or out of the EU, wants to avoid, and does not understand the situation we are now in”.
Law firm Mishcon de Reya said on Monday it had started legal action to demand the government win approval from parliament before triggering the divorce process.
“The outcome of the Referendum itself is not legally binding and for the current or future Prime Minister to invoke Article 50 without the approval of Parliament is unlawful”, Kasra Nouroozi, a partner at Mishcon de Reya, said in a statement. Article 50 simply can not be invoked without a full debate and vote in Parliament.
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As CCTV’s Richard Bestic reports from the protest, most are calling for a policy u-turn that will see the referendum result overturned.
