Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

It will be around £39bn, the government has insisted, but in reality the Brexit “divorce bill” might rise due to tens of billions of euros in spending promises and pension costs racked up by the EU.

Figures released by EU auditors show spending promises hit a record €267bn in 2017, up from €239bn the previous year, and almost twice the size of the EU’s annual budget. In the last decade the EU has spent on big infrastructure projects, such as motorways and bridges, in central and eastern Europe. Also on the rise were EU staff pension liabilities, and development loans to member states and foreign countries.

The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has never endorsed Britain’s claim of a £39bn liability. A senior EU source has previously told the Guardian in 2017 that the UK had signed up to £53bn after the two sides settled the issue last December.

The exclusive survey for The Independent showed backing for full access as the lowest level of integration has increased steadily this year and has now surpassed 60 per cent.

The public’s clear and growing desire to retain such a high level of access to the market heaps pressure on Theresa May as she prepares for a critical EU summit at which an outline Brexit deal may be agreed.

The Independent understands the EU is preparing to offer the UK a Canada-style free trade agreement that would not deliver the “frictionless” trade Ms May is seeking, and is something that just a quarter of people said they wanted in BMG Research’s poll.

The prime minister is also to meet with her cabinet ministers next week when it is likely she will discuss tweaks to her Chequers proposals to make them more amenable to the EU’s negotiators, including the possibility of a much closer customs union.

Pollsters asked a weighted sample of more than 1,500 people what their preferred option would be, including…

- Full EU membership with no limits on immigration
- Full single market membership, similar to remaining in the EEA, with moderate immigration limits
- Retaining “full access” to the single market with completely new immigration rules
- Seeking a free trade deal with a degree of access to the single market and stricter immigration controls
- No free trade deal with strict immigration rules, effectively the WTO option
- More than 61 per cent of people opted for one of the first three options, all of which deliver full access to the single market, with 22 per cent of the total within that proportion wanting to just stay in the EU.

Just 25 per cent said they backed the kind of free trade deal advocated by Brexiteers and several members of the cabinet, while only 14 per cent advocated a no-deal withdrawal.

Support for full access to the single market has been the majority position for months, something which has no doubt informed Ms May as she negotiated, whilst also attempting to deliver on concerns about immigration.

But BMG surveys carried out for The Independent in recent months have clearly shown support for remaining closely tied to the single market increasing, during a period in which businesses have more consistently raised the alarm about the potentially devastating consequences of rowing back from it.

Since July, backing for at least full access to the single market has risen five points, from 56 per cent.

At that time support for a free trade deal approach was at 28 per cent, while a no-deal approach had the support of 16 per cent – meaning voters have become progressively wary of both options that deliver looser ties with the UK’s biggest trading partner.

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Source Note: BMG Research interviewed a representative sample of 1,503 GB adults online between 3 and 5 October. Data is weighted. BMG are members of the British Polling Council and abide by its rules. Full details can be found at >www.bmgresearch.co.uk/polling<

[...]To be that party for the whole country, Conservatives must do more than demonstrate the flaws of Corbynism. We need to offer a positive and optimistic vision of the better future that our policies will deliver.
[...]

That means getting the best Brexit deal for Britain, one that protects jobs and rights and makes the most of the opportunities that Brexit brings, to play a more global role, while also delivering on the domestic issues that matter to people here at home. So we are investing in our NHS, to secure it for the future. We are driving up standards in our schools, so every child can get a good start in life. And, 10 years on from the financial crash, we are building an economy that works for everyone in our society.
[...]
So, when we have secured a good Brexit deal for Britain, at the spending review next year we will set out our approach for the future. [...]
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When she was selected as the Conservative candidate for the Devon constituency of Totnes in 2009, after a groundbreaking public postal ballot, Sarah Wollaston hoped – perhaps optimistically – that it signalled the start of new era of open, positive politics. It isn’t entirely working out like that. Almost a decade after winning the seat, Wollaston is facing the threat of deselection courtesy of a barbed, insidious campaign by Brexiters.

In recent weeks, many of her Totnes constituents have received Facebook messages from the rightwing businessman and Ukip backer Arron Banks’s Leave.EU campaign, describing the MP as “Slippery Sarah” and urging supporters of Brexit to join the local Conservative association – and then deselect her. The “blue wave” campaign, as Leave.EU has dubbed it, has to be taken seriously. The Totnes association has seen a jump in applications for membership and Wollaston is preparing for a fight.

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Hundreds of dogs and their owners marched in Westminster on Sunday afternoon ahead of the upcoming People’s Vote rally to call for a “Wooferendum” on Brexit.

Organisers of the mass dog walk, which culminated in a rally in Parliament Square, said they were “howling on behalf of the millions of people in the UK who believe Brexit is a huge mistake”.

The actor Peter Egan and the Labour MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy, spoke at the rally, and the former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell was among the crowd.

“It’s a very British sort of thing – people love their animals and there are serious animal welfare concerns with Brexit. But the reason I wanted to come is that I do think the People’s Vote has got to happen,” said Campbell, holding his five-month-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Skye.

He confirmed it was Skye’s “first ever rally”, but said she would be attending the People’s Vote march with him on 20 October.

“The Brexit that is now on offer is so far removed from anything that was promised and, far from it being undemocratic to have a second vote, I think it’s undemocratic not to,” he said, adding that politicians were “scared” of holding a referendum on the outcome of Brexit negotiations.

“They know the will of the people is changing; if Theresa May can’t even unite her party around this vision of Brexit, how is she going to unite the country?”

Egan, who has five rescue dogs, said: “I think all the attention that can be brought to the question of Brexit, whether it’s lighthearted like today, the better.”

The 72-year-old said animal welfare was his passion, but he decided not to bring any of his dogs with him to the march, describing them as “hooligans”.

Protesters held signs reading “Time to Get Pawlitical” and “Brexit is Barking”. Several dogs were caught in the act of urinating on photographs of Nigel Farage, which had been taped to bollards along the route.

Tiffany Haynes, a dog walker from London, took her Welsh collie, Megan, with her to the march.

“I think this is a nice idea for a protest, it’s a clever way of doing it because dogs make light of politics and bring people together,” she said. “People can relate to each other more with their dogs.”

That means getting the best Brexit deal for Britain, one that protects jobs and rights and makes the most of the opportunities that Brexit brings, ...

Party says it would oppose any deal taking UK out of single market or customs union

The Scottish National party will vote against any Brexit deal that takes the UK out of the single market and customs union, the party’s Westminster leader has said.Party says it would oppose any deal taking UK out of single market or customs union

MPs may not be shown Theresa May’s fresh plans to break the Brexit deadlock before she asks EU leaders to agree to them, Downing Street has admitted.

No 10 refused to guarantee the proposals – further compromises to solve the Irish border issue – would be published before a crucial EU summit next week.

It means Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and other EU leaders, could give their approval before MPs have even been able to consider them.

One pro-EU MP predicted “uproar” if parliament was denied first sight of the reworked plans, while a second accused the prime minister of a “stitch up behind closed doors”.

The “backstop” proposals are hugely controversial because they would effectively keep Northern Ireland in the single market, if no other solution can be found to avoid a hard border.

New checks would be introduced on goods flowing between Britain and Northern Ireland, an idea already condemned by Brexiteer Tory MPs and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP).

Ms May will also be expected to drop her insistence that her plan to keep the whole of the UK within the EU’s customs territory, if the “backstop” proves necessary, must be temporary.

Such a concession would provoke fury among pro-Brexit Tories if it would prevent the UK signing its own trade deals with third countries.

Extraordinarily, the prime minister’s spokesman could not guarantee that the cabinet would debate and agree “backstop 2” before it is put to the EU.