Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

British nationals who have retired to EU countries including Spain and France will no longer have their healthcare covered by the NHS in the event of no deal, the government has said.

The confirmation will come as a blow to around 190,000 British citizens retired in the EU in the Spanish Costas, Provence in France and Tuscany in Italy, all popular with British pensioners.

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When asked by a lawmaker in parliament whether she would fight any attempts by EU members to retain guaranteed access to Britain’s fishing waters, May said: “I’m very clear ... we had that agreement and it is not up for renegotiation.”

Theresa May is under mounting pressure to spell out what changes to the Irish backstop she hopes to negotiate with Brussels, after the fragile Brexit truce in her own party appeared to fray on Wednesday.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, became the latest senior figure to reject the idea of revisiting the withdrawal agreement on Wednesday, insisting, “calmly, I will say, right here and now, we need this backstop as it is”.

Downing Street said ministers would hold a series of meetings with backbench Conservative MPs, including supporters of the so-called “Malthouse compromise”, in the coming days, to thrash out an agreed approach.

May also met Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in her House of Commons for face-to-face talks – though Downing Street subsequently denied that she had signalled a shift in position towards a customs union.

The prime minister won the backing of parliament on Tuesday for a bid to return to Brussels and unpick the backstop her own government negotiated, to replace it with unspecified “alternative arrangements”.

When challenged by Jeremy Corbyn at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday about what those might be, she mentioned, “a unilateral exit mechanism or a time limit to the backstop” – and technological approaches such as a “trusted trader scheme”.

She added that Tuesday’s vote showed there was a “sustainable majority” for a deal, if objections to the backstop are tackled.

But before talks in Brussels have even resumed, the prime minister is facing demands from Brexiters in her own party to overhaul her negotiating team.

Some claim they received assurances from No 10 in the run-up to Tuesday’s crunch vote that May’s chief negotiator, Ollie Robbins – a bogeyman for many pro-Brexit MPs – would be joined on future missions to Brussels by Crawford Falconer, the UK’s top trade negotiator.

May’s spokesman insisted on Wednesday there had been no changes to the team, prompting the European Research Group’s Steve Baker to complain: “Excluding our chief trade negotiation adviser from our principal trade negotiation is a longstanding mistake which should be rectified now.

Falconer, who works in Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade, was previously New Zealand’s representative to the World Trade Organization. He worked with pro-Brexit thinktank the Legatum Institute before being brought into government.

The prime minister met Corbyn on Wednesday afternoon, after which the two sides disagreed about whether the prime minister was willing to soften her opposition to a customs union.

A spokesman for the Labour leader said shortly after the meeting broke up that the prime minister had shown a “serious engagement in the detail,” of Corbyn’s proposal for a customs union with the European Union after Brexit.

A few minutes later, Downing Street responded by saying that while May had asked Corbyn questions, she had not shifted her underlying position.

The party leaders met for 45 minutes at the prime minister’s office on Wednesday afternoon in the House of Commons for a meeting that was described as “serious and engaged” by Labour.

The Labour spokesman added that May was, “interested in exploring the details of each element” of Labour’s Brexit proposals.

The two party leaders will meet again soon, most likely within days. Corbyn made an offer to May at last year’s party conference that Labour could swing behind her deal if she backed a customs union, and offered fresh reassurances on workers’ rights and environmental standards.

May has repeatedly insisted the UK must be able to strike its own trade deals, which would rule out joining a customs union — but many in Westminster still believe she could ultimately be pushed in that direction.

Some Tory Brexiters even hint they might be willing to swallow the idea of a customs union, if the controversial backstop was struck out of the legally-binding withdrawal agreement. “Can we get up and leave this thing one day, if we want to,” said one senior Leaver. “Is our destiny in our hands?”

Other Brexiters are urging their restive colleagues to be patient, however, and give May the space to negotiate. Former Brexit secretary David Davis said it was unlikely May would make significant progress before 13 February, when she has promised to report back to parliament.

“I would not expect the Europeans to start moving seriously until March – until the exit day is absolutely imminent: that’s just based on their past behaviour,” Davis said.

Meanwhile a leaked memo from industry minister Richard Harrington, obtained by SkyNews, poured cold water on proposals drawn up by Nicky Morgan and Jacob Rees-Mogg, among others, to resolve the Brexit impasse.

On the idea of technological solutions to avoid a hard border, his note said, “this idea was considered and rejected by both the UK and the EU in summer 2018, as both parties concluded that it would not maintain an open border. That is why we ended up with the current backstop.”

“There is currently no border in the world, outside a customs union, which has eliminated border infrastructure.”

Harrington has issued a series of increasingly dire public warnings about the risks of a no-deal Brexit in recent days, even going as far as to say he was prepared to be sacked for doing so.

Brexit select committee chair Hilary Benn also questioned May’s plans on Wednesday, describing her remarks in the Commons as, “a re-run of last summer, when the cabinet discussed technology, trusted traders and the maximum facilitation proposal as a way of solving the NI border problem” – all of which were then rejected by the EU.

He warned that May appeared to have, “decided to go through the same process all over again for reasons of party management rather than in the national interest”.

Downing Street later dismissed remarks from European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, suggesting Tuesday’s cross-cutting series of votes had made a “disorderly” Brexit more likely.

“What the vote has done is set out what parliament requires in order to pass this deal, so we now have clarity. The EU has said that it was seeking clarity,” a spokesman said.

Theresa May is putting together a package of measures aimed at wooing Labour MPs in leave-supporting constituencies, offering greater protection for workers’ rights after Brexit and, it emerged on Wednesday night, cash for former coalfield communities.

The prime minister has asked two cabinet ministers to consult opposition backbenchers over legislation to protect workers’ rights after Brexit, although there is a fierce debate in Labour about how far to engage with the Conservatives.

Downing Street also confirmed that extra cash for deprived post-industrial areas was also under consideration, to allow “Labour MPs representing Brexit communities to say they have extracted something tangible”, according to a government source quoted in the Times.

As part of the charm offensive, Steve Barclay, the Brexit secretary, and Greg Clark, the business secretary, met Labour MP Melanie Onn on Wednesday to discuss further safeguards on workers’ rights.

The two ministers have also been tasked with drawing up proposals for enhanced environmental protections after Brexit showing how broadly May is willing to act in her efforts to persuade leave-supporting Labour MPs into voting for a revised Brexit deal.
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The government is unprepared for the possible consequences of the UK leaving the EU with no agreement in place at the end of March, the Institute for Government has told BBC News.

There was a very significant risk laws needed to replace those governing key aspects of the UK's relationship with the EU would not get passed within the next two months, the IFG said.

And it would be unable to avoid serious disruption in most policy areas.

The government has pointed out that, by the end of the 2019-20 tax year, it will have spent more than £4bn preparing for Brexit (although not all of that is on preparations for a no-deal scenario).

It has also said it has about 10,000 civil servants working on Brexit, with another 5,000 to come.

But IFG director Bronwen Maddox said: "The UK is not ready for no deal.

"The disruption from no deal - simply from the lack of preparation - would be extremely damaging.

"It cannot be dismissed as a mere blip."
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Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson fears border delays in event of no deal

Emergency “trauma packs” flown into the UK during terrorist attacks are being stockpiled on British soil by the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson over concerns of a risk to life from border delays in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The company said the move was being made due to the danger posed to the “routine and rapid” provision of the vital emergency equipment it provides to the NHS in times of emergency from a distribution plant in Belgium.

Hospitals do not generally keep large stocks of such emergency packs due to the risk of the devices or medicines contained within them running past their product shelf life.

The development highlights the dependence of the UK on frictionless movement of goods across the border. On Thursday, the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, admitted to the dangers posed by Brexit.

“What we are doing is reviewing the tens of thousands of individual medicines, medical devices other products that the health service uses making sure that the manufacturers of those products have got extra buffer stockpiles”, Stevens said. “We do obviously have a reliance on the way the transport infrastructure works in order to continue uninterrupted supply.”

Stevens added that it was “in nobody’s interest” in western Europe to stand in the way of the flow of medical equipment. “Getting those transport logistics right is absolutely crucial for the continuous flow of medical supplies, that is a statement of the obvious”, he said.

At the time of the 2017 bombing of the Manchester arena, in which 23 people died, the high number of casualties of both adults and children required Johnson & Johnson to swiftly fly-in additional packs from Belgium containing plates, wires, cables, nails and screws for the stabilising of joints.

“This is routine and the rapid deployment of trauma packs to the UK by the European Distribution Centre meant patient safety was never compromised”, a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson said.

The company, which is not the only provider of trauma packs, said that while there were “factors outside our control” it had been “preparing for no deal for well over a year” given the risks to the flow of medical supplies.

“Our priority throughout has been to patients, consumers, healthcare providers and our employees”, the spokesman said. “We are doing everything we can to prepare for all potential Brexit scenarios – including increasing our level of stockholding, increasing warehouse capacity, reviewing and where necessary changing transport/distribution routes”, the spokesman said.

Catherine Bearder, the Liberal Democrat MEP, said the government should formally rule out a no-deal Brexit.

She said: “Vital trauma packs can be sent to hospitals from the EU within hours. Customs checks will delay the packs getting to patients in emergency situations – it’s terrifying. The prime minister must take no deal off the table now.”

In 2017, the the cross-party home affairs select committee of MPs warned that post-Brexit customs checks could lead to five-hour delays at borders which could prove “critical in life and death situations where critically injured patients need care and treatment as soon as possible”.

“Accident and emergency trauma packs (which are full of equipment and medicines) are flown in from the EU to the UK within hours from the order being placed to the operating room (OR) in a hospital”, the committee’s report said.

“This short time frame is particularly necessary during unexpected large-scale emergencies, such as terrorist attacks, when a large number of people are suddenly seriously injured”, the report added.

“Hospitals do not always stockpile these packs on a large enough scale to deal with these extreme emergencies because the medicines and devices included in them would risk running past their product shelf life and many packs would be wasted.”

Unilever has said it is stockpiling Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Magnum bars ahead of the UK's departure from the European Union.

Chief executive Alan Jope said the consumer goods giant was holding a few weeks' worth of extra stock in case of disruption to supply chains.

It follows admissions of Brexit stockpiling from other firms.

The leader of Ukip has written to the Queen asking her to suspend parliament until after 29 March to ensure MPs cannot thwart Brexit.

Gerard Batten’s letter also informs the monarch that she should never have approved the 1992 Maastricht treaty as it made her, and everyone else in the UK, citizens of the EU, and was thus unlawful and treasonous.

“Your Majesty’s ministers were gravely in error and wrongly advised you,” states the letter, released publicly by Ukip.

Batten begins by saying he is formally petitioning the Queen under the 1689 Bill of Rights, which established the notion of parliamentary supremacy. He argues the current crop of MPs were elected to uphold the result of the 2016 referendum and thus take the UK out of the EU.
“It is evident that these same members of parliament are attempting by all and any means to thwart this result,” he writes. “They are accordingly in breach of their pledges to you and us, your citizens, and of a longstanding constitutional convention whereby parliament must implement the will of the people expressed in a popular vote, and are bound by electoral manifestos which have received popular assent at general elections.

“Therefore, I ask Your Majesty to thwart their efforts and to prorogue parliament from now until after 29 March 2019, which is the agreed date set aside in the Withdrawal Act of Parliament of 2018 when the United Kingdom will leave the European Union.”

Batten is not the first politician to raise the idea but is the only one to have done so seriously. During a Brexit debate last week a Conservative backbencher, Desmond Swayne, proposed it to Theresa May, but apparently as a joke.

In his letter, Batten also warns the Queen about the Maastricht treaty, which brought closer integration with the EU and which passed into UK statute in 1992.

“This treaty and statute purport to make Your Majesty a citizen of the European Union,” he writes. “The treaty states that Your Majesty as a citizen of the union will ‘enjoy the rights conferred by this treaty and shall be subject to the duties imposed thereby’.

“To presume to convey rights on or to impose duties on Your Majesty was, and remains, unlawful and treasonous under the Bill of Rights and the coronation oath. Your Majesty’s ministers were gravely in error and wrongly advised you.”

Batten, who took over as Ukip leader after the brief and disastrous tenure of Henry Bolton, has steadied the party financially but has also seen a series of leading members – among them Nigel Farage – quit due to his increasingly hard-right stance.

Batten has repeatedly focused on Islam, which he refers to as a “death cult”, and has proposed policies including special checks on immigrants from Islamic countries and the possibility of Muslim-only prisons. He appointed Tommy Robinson, founder of the far-right English Defence League, as an adviser.

If Britain leaves the bloc without a deal, UK citizens should still be able to visit the EU for up to 90 days, ambassadors of the remaining 27 EU nations said on Friday.

Meeting in Brussels, EU envoys backed a proposal which would let Brits maintain their free-travel regime. At the same time, the document irritated London by imposing new distinctions between UK citizens living in Gibraltar and the ones living on the British Isles, according to the Reuters news agency.

The proposed legislation also described Gibraltar as a "colony of the British Crown" and said its sovereignty was disputed by Spain.

"There is a controversy between Spain and the United Kingdom concerning the sovereignty over Gibraltar, a territory for which a solution has to be reached in light of the relevant resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly of the United Nations," the document said.

London regards the strategically important region at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula as a British Overseas Territory.

"Gibraltar is not a colony and it is completely inappropriate to describe in this way," a spokeswoman for London said on Friday.

With the UK set to leave the EU on March 29, Spain is increasing its claims to the neighboring territory.

Government officials are preparing to deal with “putrefying stockpiles” of rubbish in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to documents leaked to the Guardian.

If the UK leaves the EU on 29 March without a deal, export licences for millions of tonnes of waste will become invalid overnight. The Environment Agency (EA) officials said leaking stockpiles could cause pollution.

The EA is also concerned that if farmers cannot export beef and lamb a backlog of livestock on farms could cause liquid manure stores to overflow. A senior MP said the problems could cause a public health and environmental pollution emergency. An EA source said: “It could all get very ugly, very quickly.”

The emails leaked to the Guardian were sent to EA staff, asking for 42 volunteers to staff crisis management centres that would deal with incidents. On Tuesday, the chief executive of the civil service revealed plans to move up to 5,000 staff into an emergency command and control centre in the event of no deal.

An EA email sent on Thursday, labelled “importance: high”, said crisis centres could go live on 18 February and run from 7am to 8pm, seven days a week, with plans to operate 24/7 if needed. To explain the potential tasks, the email gave two examples.

“If there is a no-deal scenario, the current export of waste may cease for a period. This could result in stockpiled waste which causes licence breaches,” the email said. “Odours will obviously be an issue as the stockpiled waste putrefies and there may be runoff of leachates, causing secondary pollution.

The email warned the situation could become a high-profile issue: “It will quickly escalate into a political one because the operators will state that they have no means to move the waste.”

The second example related to animal slurry: “Problems may arise in exporting livestock to the EU. In that situation, farmers may be overstocked and unable to export lamb/beef etc. That means that they may have problems with slurry storage capacity and insufficient land spreading capability.”

“The examples seem like real possibilities,” said the EA source. “There’s a serious amount of panic going on.” One of the emails told EA staff: “We are interested in any volunteers across [the environment and business division] no matter what their level of experience is, their grade, location or incident knowledge.”

Mary Creagh MP, chair of parliament’s environmental audit committee, said: “The UK’s waste and recycling system is already fragile but these shocking emails show it will grind to a halt if customs checks and WTO tariffs prevent the export of millions of tonnes of waste.”

“No deal would be a green light to criminal fraudsters and create a public health and environmental pollution emergency,” she said. “EA officials should not carry the can for the failings of government to get a deal through and this shows how hollow the prime minister’s promises were about protecting the environment if we leave the EU.”

An EA spokesman said: “As with the whole of government and the rest of the public sector, we are preparing responsibly for all scenarios as we exit the EU.”

As well as recycling waste, the UK ships about 3m tonnes of rubbish a year to the EU to be burned in incinerators that generate electricity. Most of this is household rubbish, which is sometimes shredded and has metal removed before being sent abroad. If waste is stockpiled after a no-deal Brexit, industry experts say the populous south-east of England would be worst affected. The UK’s lack of incinerator capacity and shrinking number of landfill sites drives the exports.

The government issued a technical notice in December stating that if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, import/export licences issued by the UK would no longer be valid for shipments of waste to the 27 remaining EU countries from the day the UK leaves. The notice added: “There is currently no process set out in the EU waste shipment regulations on how notified shipments … should be re-approved. Defra is contacting other EU countries to discuss arrangements.”

Stuart Hayward-Higham, who leads Brexit planning for Suez, one of the UK’s largest waste management firms, said the EA’s planning was sensible: “It is them just putting things in place in case they need them.”

He said he hopes waste exports will not be too disrupted: “We start from a common point – they [in the EU] would like our material and we would like to send them our material. We are looking at more difficult management, rather than catastrophe.” But he added: “Obviously, port congestion will be an issue depending on the version of Brexit.”

Ministers were warned by the National Audit Office in September that plans for the continued export of animal products such as beef were far behind the needed schedule. Unlike now, after 29 March in a no-deal scenario such products will require export health certificates (EHCs), which need to be signed by an official veterinarian after an inspection.

Potential delays in issuing EHCs could leave farmers with more livestock than expected and more manure than they can deal with. Earlier in January, a new government air pollution strategy proposed an effective ban on muck-spreading, when fields are sprayed with liquid manure.

Royal family would be whisked to a safe house away from capital if civil unrest unfolds

The Queen would be evacuated from London if riots broke out following Brexit, according to reports.

She would be joined by the whole royal family in a safe house away from the capital in an alleged revival of emergency Cold War plans should civil unrest unfold if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

"These emergency evacuation plans have been in existence since the Cold War, but have now been repurposed in the event of civil disorder following a no-deal Brexit," a cabinet office source told The Sunday Times.

The proposals have been dusted off as the chances of the UK leaving the EU without a deal becomes increasingly likely.

Experts, business groups and MPs – including cabinet members – have warned of potential widespread disruption if no agreement is reached before the country's departure date on 29 March, with civil unrest, food and medicine shortages and gridlock touted as possible outcomes of a no-deal Brexit.

In such a situation, officials say they are right to consider the threat of civil agitation and the safety of the 92-year-old monarch.

But prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Mail on Sunday that the contingency proposals show unnecessary panic in Whitehall, pointing out that senior royals remained in London during the Blitz.

UK ports will wave through goods from the EU without checks if there is a no-deal Brexit to avoid huge traffic jams, it has been announced.

Tax chiefs have told 145,000 businesses they will be allowed to make declarations later – and postpone paying any import duties – to calm fears of border chaos.

The “temporary period” will last for up to one year at 20 of the busiest ports, says a letter from HM Revenue and Customs.

A suggestion by one of the EU’s most powerful officials of possible further legal assurances on the Irish backstop has failed to win over Brexiter MPs, leading to heightened talk of the UK leaving the bloc with no deal.

After a meeting with Martin Selmayr on Monday, the cross-party Brexit select committee emerged clear that the European commission secretary general had floated the possibility of a legally binding adjunct to the withdrawal agreement.

However, Selmayr, a trusted aide of the commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, tweeted that after the 90-minute discussions in Brussels that he was convinced “the EU did well to start its no-deal preparations in December 2017”.

The committee’s chairman, Hilary Benn, said he had left with “the impression that [the EU] might be prepared to consider some additional statement or legal protocol” to sweeten the 585-page draft treaty.

The Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said Brussels appeared open to converting into legal text a letter of assurance published by Juncker and his European council counterpart, Donald Tusk, before the last Commons vote. That letter had offered swift trade negotiations and a rapid search for technological solutions to the Irish border issue to ensure the backstop would be temporarily, if ever, enforced.

“The Juncker and Tusk letter would in essence be copied and pasted into a protocol and shoved into the withdrawal agreement,” Kinnock said. “It is definitely [a case of ] reopening to quickly slip something in and close it very quickly. I would term it unzipping.”

Stephen Crabb, a Conservative former work and pensions secretary, said: “We talked around the idea of the Tusk letter being written into some sort of legal protocol but every time someone asked him if it is something he could do, he said: ‘First of all, it’s not me negotiating, and secondly, let me turn around the question: if we were to do that would you be guaranteed to vote for the deal?’ That’s where some of the more Brexiteer members of the committee wouldn’t say.”

Crabb added: “I’ve come away with the belief that they’re up for a discussion around some additional text or something that can bring comfort on this issue, but the idea that the backstop is going to go away is for the birds.”
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Tariffs would be slashed to zero on all imports after a no-deal Brexit, under “extraordinarily damaging” plans being considered by the government.

Labour said the move would trigger “serious job losses in key industries from ceramics to farming”, by unilaterally opening up domestic markets to dramatically cheaper goods from across the world.

The GMB union condemned the idea as “the ultimate Brexit betrayal” – while the National Farmers’ Union said the impact “would be “absolutely savage”.

Nevertheless, the department for international trade confirmed scrapping tariffs was among “all options” being considered if the UK crashes out of the EU without an agreement.

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, fears failing to slash duties would sent prices soaring in the shops and hit UK producers who depend on supply chains from the EU.

However, Barry Gardiner MP, Labour’s shadow trade secretary, said: “What is proposed is extraordinarily damaging.

“Reducing all tariffs on imports to zero would undermine our domestic producers in their home markets, and risk serious job losses in key industries from ceramics to farming.”

Mr Gardiner said the strategy would also leave the UK with “nothing to negotiate with” in future trade talks, adding: “Liam Fox is not just shooting himself in the foot, he is shooting himself in both feet.”

A spokesperson for Dr Fox said: “No decision has been taken and the government is currently considering all options in the event of a no-deal with the EU.”

Any removal of tariffs would be a temporary measure and the impact on the economy would be monitored closely, the spokesman added.

Dr Fox revealed his strategy to industry leaders in behind-closed-doors meetings this week, The Huffington Post website revealed.