May fighting fires at home as EU’s Brexit deadline looms

Bloomberg

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is battling to put out multiple political fires at home as she prepa-
res for a crucial meeting in Brussels that she hopes will end the deadlock in Brexit talks. Euro-skeptics including members of May’s own Conservative party
set out new “red lines” for the negotiations ahead of a lunch meeting she’ll have on Monday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
In two further blows, the government’s social mobility advisers
quit en masse, saying May has failed to improve the lives of the poorest people in Britain, wh-
ile her deputy Damian Green is facing fresh calls to resign over
allegations of sexual misconduct.
The storm of trouble swirling around May’s leadership intensified just as Brexit negotiations reach their most sensitive stage. The European Union set her a deadline of Monday to make a
better offer on the terms of the
divorce that are currently stuck
— including the so-called exit bill, legal protection for the rights
of EU nationals, and avoiding a new hard border between the
UK and Ireland.

December Deadline
If she fails to persuade the other 27 EU countries that her new
offer on all three issues is acceptable, May will not be allowed to begin negotiating the new free-trade deal she wants with the
EU, or the transition period that businesses crave.
Both sides want talks to move on from the divorce terms to this second phase focusing on future relations at a summit of European leaders on December14. Without a separation deal by the end of
the year, British officials fear the talks will collapse.
May’s room for maneuver was tightened by a new letter from Brexit supporters, including former Cabinet ministers John Redwood, Nigel Lawson and Owen Paterson. The letter called on the prime minister to give the EU a
final ultimatum this week.
If there is no deal by the end of this month’s summit, “The UK —having exhausted every avenue —should suspend its participation in the negotiations and inform the EU that, unless they are prepared to talk to us seriously about a future free-trade arrangement, we will revert to World Trade Organisation terms from March 30, 2019,” the letter said.
The letter demanded that after Brexit day on March 29, 2019, free movement of people must end, the UK should be able to sign and
implement new trade deals and the European Court of Justice must have no further role in British legal matters. Without agreeing to these terms, the EU must not receive a penny towards the 60 billion-euro bill ($71 billion) it’s demanding Britain pay, the letter said.

European Court
On Sunday, UK Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt confirmed reports that May is planning to allow the ECJ to have a role in protecting the rights of EU citizens living in the country after Brexit. If British law is not clear on an issue the Supreme Court in London should be able to refer a case to the European Court for a recommendation, he said. “This is just a technical point,” Hunt told ITV’s Peston on Sunday program.
Some Euro-skeptics are likely to regard such a move as a betrayal of May’s promise that the European judges at the ECJ will have no role in British legal systems
after the country leaves the bloc. May has already won cabinet
support to increase her offer to the EU on the money, leaving
the final hurdle of the Irish border to be resolved.