May seeks to charm EU states as opposition to hard Brexit mounts

Bloomberg

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May will begin a diplomatic offensive on Monday amid mounting international concern and domestic opposition to her so-called hard Brexit rhetoric for leaving the European Union.
May will go to Denmark and the Netherlands for talks with other EU leaders as comments suggesting that her priority will be to curb immigration spurred concern of Britain exiting the regional bloc without a trade agreement in place.
The prime minister is under pressure from financial markets, business leaders, government colleagues and a cross-party alliance of lawmakers just days after she set out her vision of how Britain will exit the EU. Her critics see May’s pledge to restrict immigration as incompatible with continued U.K. access to the single market, posing a risk to the economy. That has sent shock waves through markets and pushed the pound to a 31-year low.
The Observer newspaper reported on Sunday that former Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband has discussed with pro-EU Conservative lawmakers forming an alliance to demand the government allow a parliamentary vote on terms of Brexit. Miliband is considering offering an urgent question in the House of Commons on Monday demanding that May appear before parliament to explain the body’s role in EU-exit decisions.

‘Complete Outrage’
“It would be a complete outrage if May were to determine the terms of Brexit without a mandate from parliament,” Miliband told The Observer. “There is no mandate for hard Brexit.”
May’s comments last week dominated talk on the sidelines at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington.
France and its European partners vow to keep intact the four freedoms that constitute the foundations of the EU in Brexit negotiations, the French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said at a press conference Saturday while attending the IMF meetings.
Splits have also emerged in May’s administration. A government minister speaking on condition of anonymity condemned a proposal to force companies to list foreign workers, proposed by Home Secretary Amber Rudd at the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, as illegal and discriminatory and said it would have to be abandoned because it wouldn’t pass a vote in parliament.
U.K. business leaders added their voice to those concerned by the rhetoric. The Confederation of British Industry and other trade groups signed a letter released this weekend, pleading with the government to be included in the process to formulate Britain’s negotiating position in talks with the EU.