Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Downing Street tells Brussels negotiators documents must not be shared with 27 states

Downing Street’s secrecy over its “underwhelming” Brexit proposals has caused a fresh rupture in the negotiations in Brussels.

The row centres on a demand that the EU’s negotiating team treat a long-awaited cache of documents outlining the UK’s latest ideas as “Her Majesty’s government property”.

The European commission team was told by Whitehall that the three “confidential” papers it had sent on Thursday evening should not be distributed to Brexit delegates representing the EU’s 27 other member states.[...]

The three so-called non-papers – which do not commit the government to a specific policy solution – raise suggestions broached last week by David Frost, who is Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator, and which have been trawled over and rejected at an earlier stage in the two years of talks.

They include the use of technology and trusted traders schemes to facilitate customs checks away from the Irish border and the joint surveillance of the market in manufactured goods to ensure sub-standard goods do not enter the single market.

The one area of convergence is on the need for an all-Ireland sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) or agrifood zone. The final UK paper opens discussions on its scope.

Explaining to the EU27 the failure to provide copies of the papers to the member states’ representatives, the commission’s Brexit taskforce wrote in an email: “The UK labelled the documents as HMG property and requested us not to do any onward disclosure … We intend to discuss working methods with the UK in terms of transparency and sharing information.”

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has previously claimed that the government has been loth to share written proposals with the EU in case they are leaked and trashed in public.

EU diplomats complain that it will be impossible for the negotiations to progress if the member states are unable to thoroughly analyse British plans for replacing the Irish backstop.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told colleagues he does not expect to be able to reach full “legally operable” deal covering the Irish border at a meeting of EU leaders, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Separately, Ireland said Britain and the European Union were not yet close to a Brexit deal that could resolve the Irish border problem and London needs to come up with serious proposals.

A leaked European Commission memo has said the UK government's latest draft proposals for a new Brexit deal "fall short of satisfying all the objectives of the Irish backstop".

In a UK exclusive interview with Sky's Sophy Ridge, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker confirmed he had been sent documents by Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlining the ideas for a new deal.

However, the document obtained by Sky News said the proposals did not provide "legally operational solutions" to the Irish backstop.

It added that the draft failed to:

• Avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland
• Protect the all-island economy and north-south co-operation
• Preserve the integrity of the Single Market and Ireland's place in it
The UK government has made clear that the documents sent to the EU this week are not formal indications of its position, but rather ideas for discussion.

Downing Street is expected to come forward with formal alternatives to the backstop in the coming weeks.

The memo from the European Commission to the Council and Parliament, comes as Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay continues talks in Brussels.

AM: One of your first jobs [as PM] is go to Brussels and negotiate a new Brexit deal … In that context, is it your view that Britain is better off inside the European Union or better off, long-term, outside the European Union? Which?

JC: [It] depends on the agreement you have with the European Union outside.

AM: So we could be better off outside, therefore?

JC: Listen, what I’ve tried to do all along is recognise the result of the referendum and respect it. That’s what we said in our 2017 manifests, which is why we voted before that to invoke article 50 … We have consistently put forward what I believe to be a credible option, which is what we call the five pillars which is the customs union, the trade relationship, protection of consumer, environmental and workers’ rights, and of course, the Good Friday agreement and the peace process …

I recognise the majority of Labour party supporters and members support remain and supported remain, but a significant minority voted the other way.

The government has pledged £150m to temporarily cover the healthcare costs of 180,000 British nationals living in the EU in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said workers posted to the bloc, plus pensioners and students, who can currently have their healthcare funded by the UK under existing reciprocal arrangements, would continue to be covered for six months after a crash out.

The government will also pay the treatment costs of UK tourists if they began their holiday before the UK leaves the EU.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A month before Britain is due to quit the European Union, the bloc’s car-makers have joined forces to warn of billions of euros in losses in the event of a no-deal Brexit with production stoppages costing 50,000 pounds a minute in Britain alone.

Britain is scheduled to quit the EU on October 31 but businesses have grown increasingly concerned at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s apparent lack of progress toward a new withdrawal deal to replace the proposals of his predecessor Theresa May, which the British parliament rejected three times.

In a statement, groups including the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers and 17 national groups warned of the impact of “no-deal” on an industry which employs 13.8 million people in the European Union including Britain, or 6.1% of the workforce.

“The UK’s departure from the EU without a deal would trigger a seismic shift in trading conditions, with billions of euros of tariffs threatening to impact consumer choice and affordability on both sides of the Channel,” they wrote in Monday’s statement.

“The end of barrier-free trade could bring harmful disruption to the industry’s just-in-time operating model, with the cost of just one minute of production stoppage in the UK alone amounting to €54,700 (£50,000).”

If the two sides revert to World Trade Organisation trading rules, the likely consequence of a disorderly Brexit, the groups warned that the necessary tariffs will add 5.7 billion euros to the EU-Britain car trade bill.

The European car industry is dependent on heavily integrated cross-border supply chains, which rely for their effectiveness on a zero-tariff, almost border-free environment within the EU’s custom union.

Britain’s car industry, which is almost entirely foreign-owned, is exceptionally vulnerable, as it is dominated by factories owned by German, French and Japanese auto makers.

Boris Johnson has cautioned against speculation he could come significantly closer to a revised Brexit deal during a series of talks with European leaders at a UN summit this week, saying “a New York breakthrough” did not seem to be on the cards. ...
But speaking to reporters on the plane to New York after suggestions of a possible compromise over the vexed issue of the Irish border seemed doused by EU scepticism, Johnson conceded there were “still gaps, still difficulties” over how to solve this.

“I would caution you all not to think this is going to be the moment,” he said. “I don’t wish to elevate excessively the belief that there will be a New York breakthrough. I’m not getting pessimistic – we will be pushing ahead, but there is still work to be done.”
[...]
He [Johnson]dismissed the idea that individual EU states might take a more conciliatory line than Tusk, saying: “We in the UK government respect the primacy of the European Commission when it comes to doing these negotiations.”

Overall, Johnson argued, the EU did not seem particularly dogmatic over what kind of deal emerged, so long as one could be reached.

“What I’m finding is so interesting is I think that our friends and partners, provided we get the right deal, are not actually interested in that outcome,” he said. “I think that they will be happy for us to have a relationship of equals, working together to build a new partnership.”

British ministers are to snub a major new “alliance for multilateralism” being launched by France and Germany at the United Nations general assembly this week in a fresh sign of how Brexit is shifting British foreign policy.

The alliance, due to be launched by the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, and the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, is intended to act as a bulwark against what Le Drian has described as “the wilding of the world” and the abandonment of the rules-based order set up after 1945.

The initiative, in the planning for six months, has inevitably been seen as a thinly-veiled rebuke to the increasingly vocal advocates of national sovereignty such as Donald Trump.

The alliance’s first meeting in New York on Thursday is due to be attended by over 50 ministers but Britain is not sending a minister, and has declined to sign five of the six declarations linked with the initiative.

The alliance is regarded by France and Germany as its most important joint diplomatic response to nationalism, and the British refusal to embrace the plan underlines how much Brexit may lead to a wider parting of the ways between the UK and Europe.

In the past in debates between advocates of national sovereignty and multilateralism, the UK has always sided with the multilateralists.

Countries that have signed up to the agreement, according to Le Drian, include France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Singapore, Ghana and others. Le Drian made no mention of the UK. He said: “The symptoms of a true wilding of the world accumulates, putting in peril the multilateral edifice which we collectively developed, as we learned the lessons of two great world wars.”

The aim he said “was to give a voice to the immense majority of countries that believe in the efficiency of international cooperation”.
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Labour's annual conference has rejected a motion calling for the party to oppose Brexit in all circumstances.

Delegates at the gathering in Brighton voted down a plan that would have seen the party support Remain in any future referendum. They instead backed a proposal from the party leadership that will see Labour delay deciding its position until after a general election.