May fails to secure legal guarantees after EU call her 'nebulous and imprecise': Brexit News for Saturday 15 December

May fails to secure legal guarantees after EU call her 'nebulous and imprecise': Brexit News for Saturday 15 December
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Theresa May fails to secure legal guarantees on the backstop time limit at the European Council…

At an extraordinary news conference, the presidents of the European Council and Commission confirmed no more negotiations. Council President Donald Tusk said: “The union stands by this agreement and intends to proceed with its ratifications. It’s is not open for renegotiation.” This was repeated by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for good measure, who said: “We can issue some clarifications but there will be no renegotiations.” Devastating for a UK prime minister desperate to get her deal through the Commons. And whereas the PM had played down expectations of a breakthrough arriving at the summit, just hours after having 117 of her own MPs vote to show no confidence in her leadership, she might not have expected a marked hardening of the language in the summit communique. The Spanish and Irish joined forces to delete a draft paragraph offering to work on extra reassurances for the UK that the backstop would be temporary. – Sky News

  • May: Still work to do on Brexit deal – BBC News
  • WATCH: May plays for time. “Further clarification and discussion… is in fact possible” – Conservative Home
  • France’s Macron – The Brexit accord is not renegotiable – Reuters
  • EU’s Tusk says no more Brexit negotiations – Reuters
  • Brussels reject Theresa May’s plea for backstop concessions – Katy Balls for The Spectator

…where she confronted Jean-Claude Juncker in an angry exchange caught on camera…

Theresa May has publicly confronted Jean Claude-Juncker after the President of the European Commission launched a personal attack on the Prime Minister. A visibly angry Mrs May engaged in what appeared to be a heated row with Mr Juncker as the pair sat down for the start of the second day of a crunch EU summit in Brussels. The uncharacteristic display of anger by Mrs May came as she continued to fight for her political life with her Brexit deal on life support and her Conservative Party in a state of civil war. Meanwhile, one of Mrs May’s main Brexit mantras of the choice being between her deal and no-deal was put in doubt by her de facto deputy as David Lidington refused to rule out quitting in the event the Government signed off on a disorderly divorce. – Telegraph (£)

  • May and Juncker clash over ‘nebulous’ comment – Politico
  • What does nebulous mean and why did Juncker say it to Theresa May? – The Sun
  • Mrs May should be taking on President Juncker about the backstop, not his implied insults  – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£)

…while the Cabinet now say May’s deal is dead

A majority of the cabinet view Theresa May’s Brexit deal as dead and are openly discussing other options including a second referendum, The Times has learnt. As the prime minister faced fresh humiliation in Brussels, most of her ministers have now concluded that there is little hope of her deal getting through parliament. They are split, however, on the way forward, with rival groups planning to ambush Mrs May with opposing demands at a meeting next week. The cabinet has fractured into three camps, with one, composed of five ministers, including Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, and Philip Hammond, the chancellor, leaning reluctantly towards backing a second referendum if all other options are exhausted. – The Times (£)

Swiss approve text of UK trade deal in boost for no deal preparations

The Swiss government approved on Friday the text of a trade agreement with Britain that aims to maintain economic and commercial relations with its sixth-biggest export market after Brexit, the cabinet said. “If the transition period between the EU and the UK comes into effect on March 29 next year, the bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU will continue to apply between Switzerland and the UK,” a government statement said. Should Britain leave the EU under a “no-deal” scenario, the text of the agreement “makes it possible to replicate in substance the vast majority of trade agreements that currently regulate relations between Switzerland and the UK”. – Reuters

  • Switzerland guarantees trade relationship in case of No Deal – Guido Fawkes

Penny Mordaunt plans for a managed no deal that could halve Brexit bill

Penny Mordaunt is expected to become the first Cabinet minister to unveil detailed plans for a “managed” no deal to slash the UK’s Brexit bill in a move that will fuel leadership speculation. The International Development Secretary is set to unveil her own plans to unblock the Brexit logjam by agreeing the two-year transition period after Britain leaves the EU on March 29 to allow the UK to develop a ““maximum facilitation” scheme to trade with the European Union. This would involve the UK continuing paying £10billion a year into the EU while plans are laid for an organised exit in early 2021. – Telegraph (£)

EU confirms UK holidaymakers will face a £6 charge post-Brexit

News that British holidaymakers will be charged €7 to visit the EU after Brexit has sparked a furious social media reaction – prompting calls to charge Europeans for coming to the UK. The backlash comes after an announcement that UK citizens will have to purchase a security check known as the European Travel Information and Authorization System when travelling to the continent.  Under the system, travellers would have to apply online by providing personal information and passport details, before noting the first country they are travelling to and answering background questions. – Daily Mail

  • No visa but Britons will pay €7 to travel to EU countries – BBC News

Nigel Farage tells Leave Means Leave rally to prepare for a second referendum

Nigel Farage said he believes the UK may face a second referendum in the coming months and urged Brexit campaigners to “get ready for every situation”. Speaking at the Leave Means Leave rally, the former Ukip leader said: “My message folks tonight is as much as I don’t want a second referendum it would be wrong of us on a Leave Means Leave platform not to get ready, not to be prepared for a worst case scenario. “If I’m wrong, we’ve lost nothing. We’ve not got to move into a different gear. We’ve got to start forming branches and active groups all over this country. – Telegraph (£)

New Brexit referendum logical, says Tony Blair

MPs could end up supporting another Brexit referendum if “none of the other options work”, Tony Blair has said. The ex-prime minister said there could be majority support for a new EU poll if Parliament ended up “gridlocked”. He urged Theresa May to “facilitate” the process by “running all options” by MPs first, including Norway and Canada-style alternatives as well as her deal. But Labour frontbencher Angela Rayner says another referendum could increase division in the UK. The shadow education secretary told the BBC’s Question Time that holding a further Brexit vote would “undermine democracy”. “People made the decision and you can’t keep going back saying, ‘Would you like to answer it a different way?'”  – BBC News

Ban on foreign boats using electric pulse to catch fish

Foreign trawlers that use electric shocks to catch fish will be banned from British waters after Brexit. Fishermen have said that the sea is a “graveyard” after being visited by trawlers towing electrodes that fire bursts of electricity to force out sole and plaice from the seabed. The pulses cause fish to spasm and spring up into nets but they can also break the spines of cod. Pulse fishing is illegal in EU waters but the European Commission has granted exemptions, partly for research purposes, to about 100 trawlers. George Eustice, the fisheries minister, said the UK would copy the EU ban but would not permit the exemptions. He said: “There are lots of anecdotal reports . . . of cod having their backs broken by this technique and there is some evidence that the electric pulse can disturb the navigation of fish, affecting their ability to feed and migrate. – The Times (£)

British yellow vest protests spread as pro-Brexit campaigners block traffic

Pro-Leave demonstrators donning yellow vests took over three bridges in central London today as they demanded Britain’s exit from the EU. Campaigners chanting ‘Brexit now’ stopped cars from crossing Westminster Bridge, Tower Bridge and then Waterloo Bridge as Theresa May held crunch talks with EU leaders in Brussels. About 60 people wearing yellow vests similar to those worn during protests in France gathered by the Houses of Parliament at noon to first occupy Westminster Bridge. – Daily Mail

BBC ‘turning blind eye’ to Lineker’s Brexit tweets

BBC staff have accused the corporation of double standards for allowing Gary Lineker to campaign against Brexit while other presenters are barred from voicing their opinions. They complained that the Match of the Day presenter is “untouchable” and that executives turn a blind eye to his political pronouncements. The BBC said Lineker can express his personal political views because he is not involved in news or current affairs output, and pointed to editorial guidelines that say staff in “politically sensitive areas” should be be seen to support a particular position. – Telegraph (£)

Esther McVey: How to deliver Brexit from here. We must prepare properly for no deal

The clock is ticking, so we simply do not have the time to pretend that, with a little bit of tinkering, this fundamentally bad deal can be made acceptable to the British people.  The more time we waste on an agreement which cannot meet the wishes of both sides, the more likely it is that we will default to an abrupt departure at the end of March. It is better to focus our time, resources and energy on preparing a planned Brexit now and to come up with a clear plan for what will follow.  To continue with a charade that tweaking here and there and tacking on assurances will somehow make this flawed agreement better risks the Government failing properly to prepare for what comes next.With little over three months remaining, we must pursue these two conditions with the EU and, if they are rejected, then we must accept that it has not been possible to secure a deal which satisfies the interests of both the UK and the EU.  In the event of this outcome, we must focus all our resources on securing an orderly exit from the EU. – Esther McVey MP for ConservativeHome

  • A no-deal Brexit is more likely than not. And what’s so dreadful about that? – Charles Moore for the Telegraph (£)

Amber Rudd: Ignore the siren voices calling us to the rocks of No Deal

Brexit is in danger of getting stuck – and that is something that should worry us all. If MPs dig in against the Prime Minister’s deal and then hunker down in their different corners, none with a majority, the country will face serious trouble. We will be on a path to something almost everybody agrees mustn’t happen: No deal with the European Union. It’s tempting to ask: what’s the harm in that? Well, it would mean the current uncertainty we all find distressing would be magnified rather than resolved. Our car makers – the centre-piece of our manufacturing industry, who depend heavily on exports to the EU – would face short term disruption and long term uncertainty about their ability to compete.  Our airlines and freight hauliers and retailers would all find it difficult to guess what would become of their businesses. – Amber Rudd for The Daily Mail

  • Amber Rudd urges MPs to ‘forge a consensus’ – BBC News

Merryn Somerset Webb: How I became a Brexiter — and why ‘no deal’ would not be disastrous

In early 2015 I spent an hour interviewing Nick Clegg. He turned me into a Leave voter. How? By telling me that we have to accept that we “can’t change the reality” that there are many things in the modern world that can’t be controlled even by national governments. A national government can have “only limited control” over global trade, international crime and climate change, for example. He couldn’t, he said, think of an area of public policy that was now not impinged upon by some kind of global decision-making body. This made Westminster something of “a fictional universe”, one in which people “seem to think that they have power” but which is actually a “19th century toytown” in which they do not. – Merryn Somerset Webb for the  FT (£)

Kathy Gyngell: May wounded? No, her Surrender Plan is bang on target

The Brexiteers have been played. Game, set and match to Mrs May and Number Ten’s Stasi operation. May’s ‘group of four’ – ‘remainer’ advisers all and her Comms Director, the discreet and low-profile former BBC news executive, Robbie Gibb, have played a blinder. Be in no doubt that they were prepared for Wednesday’s vote of no confidence. The rumour mill says they even brought it on, ensuring that they could take control of the timing: which they did. May had nothing to fear. With 139 MPs on the Government’s payroll she was never going to lose. All she needed was to win to secure her position for another year. – Kathy Gyngell for ConservativeWoman

Richard Tice: Time for the Prime Minister to pursue a “World Trade” Brexit

Having correctly ruled out a second referendum and a General Election, and with no chance of passing her own deal through Parliament, the Prime Minister is left with only one option for which she and the Government should now robustly prepare: a World Trade deal, from March 29, 2019. Far from the panto-dramatics language of no deals and cliff edges used by the anti-Brexit gang, a World Trade deal simply means we will continue to trade with the EU and like most other countries around the world, we will do so under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.  – Richard Tice for the Telegraph (£)

Iain Duncan Smith: I had no choice but to join the rebellion against Mrs May

The result of the confidence vote on Wednesday night was a shock to Downing Street. That over a third of the Parliamentary party declined to support the Prime Minister sounds bad enough. It is even worse when one discounts the votes of those MPs who are members of the government and realises that around two thirds of backbenchers declined to give Theresa May their support. The last seven days of chaos, starting with the refusal to release the Attorney General’s legal opinion, followed by three defeats for the government on one day, and ending with the debacle of the Commons vote on the Withdrawal Agreement being postponed, filled many with despair. – Iain Duncan Smith for the Telegraph (£)

Matthew Lynn: The myth of the Brexit cliff edge

The ports will be clogged up with lorries. The shelves at Tesco will be empty. Doctors will be rationing antibiotics, and the army will be called out to deliver food. As we approach the deadline for our departure from the European Union, as the Prime Minister returns empty handed yet again from yet another catastrophic round of negotiations in Brussels, and as the cliff-edge gets closer and closer, the conventional wisdom is that the pressure on Britain to agree to something – anything! – becomes more and more intense.And yet, as so often in the through-the-looking glass world of Brexit, that conventional wisdom is a bit off target.- Matthew Lynn for The Spectator

Comment in Brief

  • Brexiteers aren’t the extremists: the die-hard Remainers are – Telegraph editorial (£)
  • Why Theresa May should ditch her Withdrawal Agreement and opt for a CETA style FTA – David Jones speaks to Briefings for Brexit
  • Five things patronising second referendum crowd need to ditch – Alastair Benn for Reaction
  • Ignore the managed no deal fear-mongering – John Redwood MP for CommentCentral
  • Eurozone problems are a greater threat to our economic stability than a no-deal Brexit – Jeremy Warner for the Telegraph (£)
  • Could a former EU President help Mrs May solve the backstop deadlock? . – Tom Harris for the Telegraph (£)
  • The Prime Minister’s run-out-the-clock strategy on Brexit helps Corbyn too – Henry Hill for ConservativeHome
  • Caroline Lucas and her citizens jury is the worst idea yet from Remainers – Charlotte Henry for Reaction
  • The result of this Brexit chaos? We’re heading for government by focus group – Stewart Jackson for The Telegraph (£)
  • How Dublin ran rings round May on Brexit and the Northern Ireland border – Andrew Gimson for ConservativeHome

 

News in Brief

  • Europe gives Macron respite from domestic troubles – Politico
  • Why the EU should fear a second UK referendum – Thomas Klau for Politico
  • A Second Referendum is just what the wreckers want – Richard Tuck for Briefings for Brexit
  • Labour’s referendum strains – BBC News
  • Risk of “managed” no-deal Brexit rising, British minister says – Reuters
  • ‘Robust’ May-Juncker dispute dominates EU summit – Sky News