PM MAY last Monday afternoon, in her first statement to MPs in parliament since her Florence speech last month and her debacle at the Tory Party conference last week, concentrated on trying to keep both wings of the Tory Party, leavers and remainers, apart and relatively happy, as she repeated her call for a ‘new, deep and special partnership between a sovereign United Kingdom and a strong and successful European Union.’
May said: ‘And as we look forward to the next stage, the ball is in their court. But I am optimistic we will receive a positive response.’ In fact, for her, everything depends on that response. A negative, still not ready to go further response from the EU could well trigger a split, a leadership challenge and a general election!
The PM stressed that the government is preparing for ‘every eventuality,’ including walking away without a deal. She nevertheless rejected a Tory call to name a date when Britain would walk away from talks without an agreement, saying that ‘flexibility’ is needed. She also confirmed that Britain would remain subject to the rulings of the European Court of Justice during her proposed two-year transition period, after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.
Responding to the potential leadership challenger Rees-Mogg, May told MPs that the need to ensure the minimum of disruption ‘may mean that we will start off with the ECJ still governing the rules we’re part of for that period.’
She also admitted that during this period any new EU laws would have to be obeyed, saying it was ‘highly unlikely’ any new EU laws would come into force during the transition, but could not rule out that such laws would apply to the UK.
She told MPs the need to ensure the minimum of disruption ‘may mean that we will start off with the ECJ still governing the rules we’re part of for that period.’ Backbencher Rees-Mogg said afterwards that he was ‘troubled’ by the PM’s statement. ‘If we’re remaining under the jurisdiction of the ECJ then we haven’t left the European Union, or the date of departure is being delayed,’ he said.
The final decision whether the EU leaders are prepared to agree to move on from the initial phase of talks, covering the financial settlement, Northern Ireland and citizens’ rights will be taken at a European Council summit on 19 October, with the government desperate to move on to discussing what its future relationship with the EU will look like.
After her speech in the House of Commons May met leading industry bosses, including Aston Martin, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Vodafone – remainers all and at any cost – at a meeting of the Business Advisory Council in Downing Street. Alongside her was Chancellor Philip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis, representing the different wings of the party – Davis is now heading to Brussels for the crucial fifth round of Brexit negotiations.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove – the two key figures in last year’s Leave campaign – who did not intervene in the parliamentary debate out of fear of splitting the party and causing an election – both issued statements backing May’s comments.
Johnson praised her ‘strong vision’ while Gove said on Twitter: ‘Strong statement from PM on Brexit – let’s be pragmatic over implementation to secure maximum freedom to diverge from EU in end state.’
The Labour opposition on Monday limited itself to trying to get out of the PM what legal advice had been given on whether the decision to trigger Brexit can be reversed. May refused on five occasions to say if the government had received any advice about the possibility of Britain performing a U-turn on leaving the European Union.
This questioning of May followed the statement by Labour Party Deputy Leader Tom Watson who, when asked if the party would back a second Brexit referendum, said: ‘We’re not ruling it out.’ It is becoming crystal clear to millions of workers that the ruling class and the majority of its political hirelings are opposed to leaving the EU and intend to act as agents of the EU bosses and bankers by overturning the referendum decision by any means necessary.
Leaving the EU is going to require another type of national referendum, that is a socialist revolution, an uprising of the masses to settle the issue by expropriating the bosses and bankers and bringing in a workers republic and socialism.
