WARRING TORY Cabinet Ministers are set to deliver a series of speeches on the ‘road to Brexit’ culminating with one by PM May within the next three weeks. Security, the devolution of powers, workers’ rights and trade are to be covered.
This comes against a background of a divided Tory Party and Cabinet and a draft document published by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier last Wednesday which included a ‘punishment clause’ that would allow Brussels to ground aircraft and block trade if the UK failed to obey EU rules during the ‘vassal’ transition period.
Speaking in London last week Barnier said three ‘substantial’ disagreements remain with the UK over plans for a transition period after Brexit. He added: ‘If these disagreements persist the transition is not a given.’
The first Tory speech, by foreign secretary Boris Johnson, is due on Wednesday.
Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will also be heard from, along with Cabinet Office minister David Lidington, who backed Remain in the referendum.
Chancellor Philip Hammond and home secretary Amber Rudd, who voted to remain, are not delivering speeches.
May reportedly ordered Cabinet Ministers to meet with her at Chequers next week after a second meeting of her Brexit War Cabinet broke up without agreement on Thursday.
Dave Wiltshire, the Secretary of the All Trades Unions Alliance told News Line yesterday: ‘The Tories must be thrown out! They should have responded to Barnier’s punishment threats by walking out of the EU.
‘Instead they are queuing up to be a vassal state. They have learnt nothing from the way that the EU treated the Greeks and the price the Greek workers pay for remaining in the Union.
‘Workers must rise up. We must leave the EU now and go forward to socialism!’
Meanwhile, Labour is ditching ‘old style’ nationalisation. ‘It cannot be right, economically effective, or socially just that profits extracted from vital public services are used to line the pockets of shareholders when they could and should be reinvested in those services or used to reduce consumer bills,’ Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told an Alternative Models of Ownership Conference on Saturday.
He added: ‘That’s why, at last year’s general election, under the stewardship of Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, Transport Secretary, Andy McDonald and Environment Secretary, Sue Hayman, Labour pledged to bring energy, rail, water, and mail into public ownership and to put democratic management at the heart of how those industries are run.’
He stressed: ‘This is not a return to the 20th century model of nationalisation but a catapult into 21st century public ownership… ‘By taking our public services back into public hands, we will not only put a stop to rip-off monopoly pricing, we will put our shared values and collective goals at the heart of how those public services are run.’
Earlier Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had recommended co-operatives in place of ‘old fashioned’ nationalisation.
