27, October 2016
UK: May facing growing criticism over her comments about Brexit 0
British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing growing criticism over her comments about Brexit at a leaked private speech to Goldman Sachs. The premier, who has publicly made the case for a hard Brexit following a June referendum, speaks of the “benefits” of being an EU member in the hour-long session, whose audio file was leaked to the Guardian on Tuesday night, drawing harsh criticism on Wednesday.
“I think the economic arguments are clear. I think being part of a 500 million [population] trading bloc is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe,” she is heard saying. “If we were not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for us in economic terms.”
The leader of the rival Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, attacked the prime minister for having failed to address her own concerns about leaving the European Union. Corbyn has previously been calling on the Tory-held government for a clear plan to exit the bloc.
“The prime minister has given her private views on Brexit to Goldman Sachs bankers, but refuses to give the British people a clear plan for negotiations,” said the Labour leader. “It shouldn’t take a leaked tape for the public to find out what she really thinks.”
The former Labour leader and leading member of the Open Britain campaign group, Ed Miliband, also reacted to the comments, saying, the leaked comments prove that May shares the concerns of all the Britons on Brexit. “If private warnings are to be matched by proper public debate, it is essential that the government is not allowed to hoard vital analysis of the impact on our economy of leaving the single market. This work is being done in government and it must now be published,” he said, asserting that May’s comments “demonstrated that the prime minister was just as worried privately as the rest of us are publicly about the economic impact of the hard, destructive Brexit her government seems set on.”
According to the Guardian, the audio file was leaked as May was “prioritizing cutting immigration over staying in the single market, while refusing to elaborate any further on her plans for taking the UK out of the EU.”
In an unpublished newspaper column written before the June 23 referendum for the Telegraph, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson, who is another Leave campaigner in the public, also defended remaining an EU member.
“This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms. The membership fee seems rather small for all that access. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?” he wrote, calling the EU a “boon for the world and for Europe.”
Presstv
3, November 2016
EU: Irish Prime Minister warns of a vicious approach in negotiations over Brexit 0
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has warned of a “vicious” approach by the EU in negotiations over Britain’s exit from the bloc. Speaking among politicians, business leaders, trade unionists and community organizations in the capital Dublin on Wednesday, the premier further assured the nation that Brexit would not limit movement between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland by setting a “hard border.”
He said he had been assured by British Prime Minister Theresa May that there would be “no return to the borders of the past” after Brexit. The prime minister also urged leaders of the European Union not to be “obsessed” with the UK’s gains and losses in Brexit negotiations, asserting that “The other side of this argument may well get quite vicious after a while, because there are those around the European table who take a very poor view of the fact that Britain decided to leave.”
Ireland’s foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, who also attended the Dublin conference along with all leaders of the nationalist political parties on the island, said London was being pushed over maintaining the “invisible” border after Brexit.
“It is vitally important in the context of the [Brexit] negotiations next year that the matter of the invisibility of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is not only featured but is both preserved and maintained,” Flanagan said. On June 23, nearly 52 percent of Britons voted in a referendum to end their country’s 42-year membership in the EU. Nearly 56 percent of the voters in Northern Ireland voted in favor of remaining an EU member.
Presstv