May’s tough stance ‘hamstrung’ Brexit chief

Bloomberg

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s inflexible position in negotiations to leave the European Union has made the task more difficult for Brexit Secretary David Davis, a former aide said in a BBC interview.
James Chapman, who was Davis’s chief of staff until last month, said May’s ‘absolutist’ stance on ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over the UK is among issues that has ‘hamstrung’ Davis as Brexit talks begin, according to the BBC report.
“If she doesn’t, in my point of view, show more flexibility, show more pragmatism than she did demonstrate in the Home Office, she won’t get this stuff through Parliament,” he said on the BBC’s “The Week in Westminster” to be broadcast Saturday.

The former aide also said that some of the main supporters for the U.K. to leave the E.U., such as Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, would like to “recalibrate” the May’s position on immigration, but “at the moment she is showing no willingness to do so,” according to the report.
Separately, shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said Labour will work with other parties to demand a transitional agreement that will remain in force after the U.K. formally leaves the EU in March 2019, according to a Daily Mirror report.
He said the prime minister should acknowledge that plans for an extreme form of Brexit, including walking away without a deal, are “off the table” after her party lost its majority in the election, according to the report.