Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Michel Barnier has warned he is “strongly opposed” to the prime minister’s Chequers proposal on future trade with the EU after Brexit, warning the “illegal” offer would “end” the European project.

In what were some of his harshest words yet for the British government’s plans, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator said allowing Britain to “cherry pick” regulations would have “serious consequences”, adding it would be “much easier” if the UK stayed in the single market.

Mr Barnier’s comments came in an interview with newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in which he told European carmakers they would need to shun British manufacturers in order to enjoy low tariffs on their global exports.

“The British have a choice,” he said. “They could stay in the single market, like Norway, which is also not a member of the EU, but they would then have to accept all the regulations and make contributions to European solidarity.

“But if we let the British cherry pick which of our regulations to follow, that would have serious consequences: all sorts of other third countries could insist that we offer them the same deal.
“That would be the end of the single market and the European project. I am often accused of being dogmatic in the UK, but the truth is I'm only protecting our fundamental interests.”

Mr Barnier’s comments came after Theresa May insisted she would not be pushed around by Brussels in an op-ed for The Sunday Telegraph.

“I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest,” she wrote. “Neither will I give in to those who want to reopen the whole question with a second referendum... To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy – and a betrayal of that trust.”

But ex-Brexit secretary David Davis said on Sunday the proposals put forward by Ms May would be “worse than staying in” the EU, and confirmed he would vote against any deal based on the Chequers compromise.

His admission makes it more likely the prime minister will be unable to get any deal based on her plans through the House of Commons, where she has a wafer-thin majority and a number of her own MPs already openly opposing her proposals.

In comments likely to concern Britons employed by the car industry, Mr Barnier warned EU manufacturers that the frictionless imports and exports between the UK and the continent would come to an end after Brexit.

“Outside of the internal market and the customs union, this involves customs formalities and controls that hinder ‘just in time’ production,” Mr Barnier said.

“In order for EU carmakers to benefit from the tariff benefits of the EU-Korea agreement, only a certain proportion of the services may be provided in a car in a third country. Businesses have to be careful not to use too many parts of Britain in their vehicles in the future.”

Theresa May will by-pass Brussels negotiators and intensify her efforts to press EU member state leaders into doing a Brexit deal at a crucial meeting later this month.

The prime minister will use the mini-summit to convince leaders that her Chequers proposals constitute a viable route to sealing a full Brexit agreement later in the year.

Downing Street also passed a briefing paper to ministers rebuffing claims by Boris Johnson that the PM’s proposals are doomed.

It comes just days after the European Commission’s lead negotiator Michel Barnier said explicitly in public that he is “strongly” opposed to her plans.

Mr Barnier’s outspoken attack has since been used by different wings of the Tory party to push the prime minister to ditch her plans.

Asked about his comments, Theresa May’ spokesman said: “Michel Barnier has said a significant number of things in recent weeks.”

He went on: “The negotiations are taking place with the Commission, we have always respected that fact. But equally this is a decision which at the end of the process will be taken at political level by the European Council.

“So you can obviously expect a continued and stronger engagement with fellow European countries.”

On 20 September Ms May will attend a meeting of EU leaders, hosted in Slazburg, Austria, where new leader Sebastian Kurz has made helpful noises for the British PM – talking of his desire to avoid hard Brexit and extend the Trticle 50 period if needs be.

The PM’s spokesman added: “You have seen a lot of personal involvement from the prime minister in terms of the meetings she has held with her various counterparts and at the various summits which we have been attending recently.

“We have Salzburg and that will obviously be an opportunity for further engagement between the PM and the 27 [leaders of EU member states].”

Mr Barnier rejected key elements of Britain’s new trade proposals on Thursday after he and Brexit secretary Dominic Raab held talks.

In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mr Barnier said Ms May’s plans “would be the end of the single market and the European project”.

He went on: “The British have a choice – they could stay in the single market, like Norway, which is also not a member of the EU – but they would then have to take over all the associated rules and contributions to European solidarity. It is your choice.”

Mr Barnier’s views were used as a springboard by ex-foreign secretary Mr Johnson on Monday, to claim Ms May’s plans would be rejected by the EU.

A secret Treasury document has raised questions about “rail access to the EU” after a no-deal Brexit.

The document – snapped as it was carried into a Whitehall meeting – also reveals that Philip Hammond’s department has codenamed its contingency planning “Operation Yellowhammer”.

It warns that government departments will have to make cuts to prepare for crashing out of the EU, saying: “Their first call should be internal reprioritisation.”

And it acknowledges the need to “maintain confidence in the event of contingency plans being triggered – particularly important for financial services”.

Operation Yellowhammer is being overseen by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, which is usually responsible for coping with emergencies such as floods and disease outbreaks.

The document was photographed just hours after the health secretary admitted that taxpayers would have to foot the bill for stockpiling NHS medicines in a no-deal Brexit.

A Treasury spokesman refused to be drawn on the paper, saying: “We don't comment on leaked documents.”

The yellowhammer is a bird with a bright yellow head, a brown back streaked with black and chestnut rump, often seen perched on top of a hedge or bush, singing.

Intriguingly for critics of a no-deal Brexit, its song is said to have a rhythm like “a little bit of bread and no cheese”.

There were suggestions that John Glen – a Treasury minister – rather than a civil servant, had been carrying the document when it was snapped.

Only half of one page has been photographed and only some of the words can be made out.

It states that the Civil Contingencies Secretariat “held a two-day workshop last week to review departments’ plan, assumptions, interdependencies and next steps”

The Treasury’s “objectives” are listed as effective “communications architecture” to ensure confidence is maintained if Britain crashes out of the EU.

There will be a need to “explain that departments should be raising Yellowhammer costs through the normal channels – through their spending terms for in-year pressures, and in their bids for 19/20 Brexit allocations for spending in that year”, adding: “Their first call should be internal reprioritisation”.

It then refers to “the need for consistent planning assumptions” in a sentence that moves on to “rail access to the EU”.

The Treasury will also “remind departments of the need to consider the financial.....commercial firms that play a role in their contingency plans”.

Owen Smith, a Labour supporter of the anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign, said: “Operation Yellowhammer is the latest proof that Brexit will be a colossal act of economic self harm for the country. It's the political equivalent of dismembering yourself.”

And Ben Bradshaw, who backs the People’s Vote campaign, said: “We now know the government is preparing for Brexit in the same way they’d approach catastrophes like flooding, a disease outbreak or a terrorist attack. This is not what anyone voted for in 2016.”

Philip Hammond has admitted telling ministers to prepare to make cuts if the UK crashes out of the EU with no agreement, after “Operation Yellowhammer” was revealed.

The chancellor said ministers would have no choice but to “refocus government priorities”, to head off the economic damage from a no-deal Brexit.

“In no deal circumstances, we would have to refocus government priorities so that government was concentrated on the circumstances that we found ourselves in,” he said.

The admission came after a secret Treasury document – entitled Operation Yellowhammer – was photographed, revealing the need for “internal reprioritisation” of departmental spending.
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150-plus countries yet to agree to 'rollover' existing deals on trade, flights and nuclear safety

Ministers have admitted that more than 150 countries have yet to agree to “rollover” EU deals on everything from trade to flights and nuclear safety after Brexit, triggering a fresh accusation of looming “chaos”.

Countries including the US, Canada, Switzerland and Norway will only be free to give consent once the EU releases them to do so, the government has acknowledged – and no date has yet been set.

At stake are more than 750 deals with at least 168 non-EU countries – enjoyed because of EU membership – stretching far beyond trade to airline services, nuclear parts, fisheries, agriculture and data sharing.

Aerospace chiefs have already warned that planes with UK-made parts could be grounded if they lose their recognised safety certificates, for example.

Now the government has confirmed that none of the 168-odd countries have given “clear agreement” to roll over any deals and that there is no date set for asking them to do so.
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Brexit talks are at risk of collapse as a planned EU compromise on the critical question of the Irish border has been branded “unacceptable” by British cabinet ministers.

The Independent has learnt that EU officials believe they have struck upon “the only way” to bring the two sides together on the Irish border in a bid to secure a withdrawal agreement later this year.

But their proposal has already been outright rejected by at least two cabinet ministers, with one going further and branding the EU’s suggestion “bollocks”.

The impasse over the Irish border threatens to bring the talks crashing down with Theresa May’s beleaguered Chequers proposal already lacking support both in Europe and among her own MPs in Westminster.

The Independent now understands that the EU will try to break the deadlock in negotiations by offering the UK a vague political declaration on the future UK-EU relationship in return for a deal on the Irish border.

A well-placed Brussels source said: “This may well prove the only way to respect the EU’s red lines and allow Theresa May to win approval for a deal in the UK parliament.

“The political declaration holds the key to reaching a deal.”

Since the start of Brexit talks Brussels has insisted the UK sign up to a legally binding “backstop”, which would come into play if no arrangement to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland is found before Brexit day.

It would see Northern Ireland effectively remain in the EU’s customs union and single market, creating a customs border down the Irish sea – something both Ms May and her DUP partners say is unacceptable.

Under the new proposal, while the EU is still insisting the backstop must be in the legal text of the withdrawal agreement and must see Northern Ireland remaining under customs union and single market rules, they are now indicating there could be “new language” to make it more palatable to Ms May.

Critically, EU officials are suggesting the withdrawal agreement could be accompanied by a non-binding political statement to be agreed with London, that would say the backstop would never be needed because it would be superseded by an eventual trade deal.

As an example of how the statement might be worded, Brussels officials point to a similar one issued by the UK after the cabinet’s Chequers summit in July, which committed the government to accepting a backstop, but ensuring it “would not need to be brought into effect”.

The declaration would then be suitably vague on the broader future relationship to give the prime minister more flexibility over how a future trade deal would evolve during the transition period.


2.6 million Leave voters have abandoned support for Brexit since referendum, major new study finds
The briefing appears to corroborate comments made by senior MEP Danuta Hubner, who spoke at an event in Dublin on Thursday saying “political commitments” could be key to breaking the deadlock over Ireland.

But the approach has not gone down well in London, with one cabinet minister who heard about the proposal telling The Independent: “It’s unacceptable. In fact, it’s bollocks.”

A second cabinet minister agreed that the proposal was “simply not going to work”.

A Conservative source told The Independent: “Chequers is in enough difficulty as it is. I can’t see how anything including a vague declaration not to impose the backstop is going to get through parliament.

People's Vote march – demanding vote on final Brexit deal





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“It puts you at the complete mercy of the European Union on whether it would be implemented or not.”

The strength of opposition indicates Ms May could face a further round of cabinet resignations if she were to consider agreeing to such a proposal, with Boris Johnson and David Davis having already quit earlier this year.

A government spokesman said: “We don’t comment on speculation. The proposals we have put forward for our future relationship would allow both sides to meet our commitments to the people of Northern Ireland in full and we are working hard to get a deal on that basis.

“But we are clear the EU backstop proposals are unacceptable.”

In a sign of how little support Ms May’s current Brexit proposals have, Tory Eurosceptics are this week expected to bring forward their own proposals of how the Irish border issue could be solved.

Others in the party are suggesting that the UK should join EFTA, effectively remaining in the single market on a temporary basis, until a longer term trade deal can be struck, while others in the party are pushing for a new referendum.

If talks do collapse, or Ms May’s proposals are rejected by her party, it is possible that she could be challenged for the leadership even before Christmas.

Nick Boles suggests the government could enshrine a legal guarantee that it would leave the EEA exactly three years after Brexit day
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Mr Boles proposed taking the UK into a temporary Norway-style relationship as a “plan B” earlier this month, after declaring Ms May’s Chequers proposals had “zero” chance of passing through parliament.

He now believes Brexiteers would be won over to his idea – being outside the EU but temporarily in the single market as a part of the EEA and EFTA – if they were offered a legal guarantee the UK would move to a more distinct position by 2022.

Mr Boles told The Independent: “Some of my colleagues worry that we would never be able to get out of the EEA. But they should have more confidence in their own ability to ensure that this happens.

“In exchange for their support for a Norway-style interim they could insist on a short bill committing the government to leave the EEA after three years and a massive programme of investment in preparations to make us ready for WTO trade in the event that the EU doesn’t offer us a reasonable free trade deal.”
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Dominic Raab has been reprimanded by Michel Barnier after the EU’s chief negotiator discovered the British government had written to the 27 other member states asking for side negotiations on transport in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The Brexit secretary was confronted by Barnier during their most recent meeting in Brussels over correspondence sent in recent days to EU capitals by the Department for Transport.

The letters had asked the member states to prepare to engage with the British government in side deals on aviation and haulage, to allow key trade flows to continue in the event of the UK and the EU failing to come to an agreement on leaving the union by 29 March 2019.

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, had ordered the letters to be sent despite being told less than two weeks ago by the European commission’s most senior trade official, Violeta Bulc, that without a deal this autumn, there would be no other agreements made to protect the UK economy.

Barnier is said to have reiterated that message to Raab, telling the cabinet minister: “If there is no deal, there is no trust.”

The bruising exchange came on the same day that Theresa May told cabinet members the UK should remain “the EU’s closest ally” after Brexit, amid a growing belief in Downing Street that progress is gradually being made in the long-running divorce talks.

The prime minister told ministers on Tuesday that she would travel to Salzburg, Austria, for an informal EU council meeting next Wednesday, where she is expected to briefly address other leaders over dinner in an attempt to sell the idea of a deal based on her Chequers proposals.

Downing Street is setting a low bar for success at Salzburg in the belief that the most important thing at this stage is that Chequers is not ruled out. Salzburg would be “a staging post in exit negotiations”, her spokesman said in a briefing for reporters.

The spokesman added that May told the cabinet she hoped to “build on the constructive engagement of the summer” by “underlining the importance to both parties of remaining the EU’s closest ally” after Brexit.

No 10 has become cautiously hopeful that a Chequers-style deal has a chance of success, trusting that the divorce talks will ultimately come down to an intense period of last-minute negotiating in the runup to a final Brexit summit expected in the middle of November.

Officials believe Barnier has softened his public position in the last few days. Last week, Barnier reportedly told a delegation of British MPs from the Brexit select committee that he believed Chequers was “dead”, because it would require the EU to compromise over fundamental principles on the operation of the single market.

On Tuesday, however, Barnier said it was realistic to believe that a deal could be agreed within the next two months. “If we are realistic, I want to reach an agreement on the first stage of the negotiation, which is the Brexit treaty, within six or eight weeks,” he said.
May’s negotiating plan remains intensely unpopular on the right of her own party. At least 20 MPs have told her to “chuck Chequers” and propose a Canada-style free trade deal as an alternative.

There is particular unhappiness that the prime minister proposed that the UK share a “common rulebook” for food and goods with the EU after Brexit, which critics say amounts to the UK becoming a “rule-taker” from Brussels.

Debates about whether Chequers is appropriate are expected to dominate the Conservative party conference at the end of September, which is partly why it remains critical for May to ensure that EU leaders do not summarily reject the proposals in Salzburg.

May will leave Salzburg after a Thursday morning discussion on chemical weapons, with the remaining EU leaders staying to discuss the Chequers plan.

Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has published the second tranche of technical notes, outlining the government’s preparations for crashing out of the EU without a deal.

In the papers, it was revealed that UK driving licences may no longer be valid in the bloc and that vehicles made in Britain could no longer be sold on the continent in a no-deal Brexit scenario.

On data roaming charges for mobile phone customers, the detailed documents said the government could not guarantee that UK citizens using their phone in the EU would not be hit with higher charges.

But ministers said Britain’s biggest operators, including Vodafone and Three, have already made clear they had no current plans to hike roaming charges after Brexit.

Vehicles made in the UK could no longer be sold in the EU if Britain crashes out without a deal, a shock government document admits.

EU “type-approval” would no longer be granted to prove the vehicles “comply with safety and environmental standards”, it warned.

It was issued just two days after the boss of Jaguar Land Rover attacked Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, warning that that tens of thousands of jobs were being put at risk.

Manufacturers would need to seek approval from an authority in an EU member state – if such an agreement could be struck.

The document says that, if there is a no-deal Brexit, the government would act unilaterally to ensure EU-made cars could still be bought in this country, by recognising approvals.

But it acknowledges that Brussels might no longer be willing to consider the UK’s Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) as an appropriate body for sales in the EU.

The consumer organisation Which? says the government has not provided enough reassurance about what might happen in the event of a no deal Brexit. Its chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, said:
These papers are further evidence of the shambolic effects a no-deal Brexit would have for consumers. If people need to get a new passport and an international permit to drive on the continent, then travelling abroad will become significantly more challenging.

The success of Brexit will be judged by how it impacts on our everyday lives, but we’re still waiting for firm reassurances on vital issues such as flights and insurance. Without these we could be facing truly catastrophic consequences.