Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

PM also says he will apologise for failing to deliver 31 October Brexit pledge
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Pressed on his remarks on Sky New’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, the prime minister said: “I don’t wish to cast any aspersions on the president of the United States, but in that respect he is patently in error.”

“Anybody who looks at our deal can see it is a great deal and what it does, is it allow us to take back control of our money, our border and our laws. But also, it allows us to have full unfettered control of our tariff schedules,” he added.

Appearing on Sunday, Mr Johnson also said he will apologise for breaking his pledge to deliver Brexit by 31 October, as he described the election as “essential” and the “only way out of the trap parliament had constructed”.

He insisted he was “absolutely” sorry for failing to deliver Brexit by the Halloween deadline and when asked whether he will apologise to Conservative members, who had voted for him on the basis of the pledge, he said: “Of course, of course. It’s a matter of deep regret”.

Pressed on the post-Brexit transition period, the prime minister also claimed he could see “no reason whatsoever” why the government should be forced to extend it beyond December 2020, adding: “If you get the right parliament anything’s possible.

“But what you can do from the beginning is, of course, you can begin negotiating, not just with the EU but with countries around the world, and that’s one of the great opportunities that we have next year.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday urged British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage to come together to safeguard prospects for expanded U.S.-UK trade after Britain leaves the European Union.

Trump told reporters at the White House that both men were friends of his, but Johnson was “the right man for the time.”

Farage on Sunday said he would not run for a seat in parliament in Britain’s snap Dec. 12 election, focusing instead on campaigning against Johnson’s EU divorce deal. The election was called because of an impasse in parliament over Brexit, more than three years after voters decided to leave the bloc.

Asked which UK leader he supported, Trump said, “I like them both. I think Boris will get it right. They’re both friends of mine. What I’d like to see is for Nigel and Boris to come together. I think that’s a possibility.”

Trump said Britain’s exit from the EU must be structured to facilitate continued trade between Britain and the United States.

“We’re far and away the No.1 economy in the world, and if you do it a certain way we’re prohibited from trading with the UK,” he said. “That would be very bad for the UK, because we can do much more business (than the) European Union.”

Trump first waded into Britain’s election campaign last week, telling Farage in a radio interview that the leader of the left-wing opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, would be “so bad” for Britain if he wins.

Trump also floated the idea that Johnson and Farage could combine forces, saying it could be “terrific.” “If you and he get together it’s, you know, unstoppable force,” Trump told Farage in the interview.

Farage responded by saying he would be “right behind” Johnson, on condition the prime minister dropped the Brexit divorce deal he struck with the European Union two weeks ago and instead went for a “clean break” Brexit without a deal.

Trump also said Britain could do four to five times more trade with the United States, but might be prevented from doing a bilateral trade deal by the terms of the potential post-Brexit trade relationship that London and Brussels have set out.

Downing Street has effectively blocked the publication of a potentially explosive parliamentary report on the security threat that Russia poses to the UK until after the general election.

The 50-page document from the intelligence and security committee (ISC) examines allegations that Kremlin-sponsored activity distorted the result of the 2016 EU referendum, but has to be cleared by No 10 before it can be released.

Downing Street indicated on Monday that it would not approve publication before parliament is dissolved on Tuesday evening, meaning that it cannot now appear before the election on 12 December.

A No 10 spokesman declined to outline when the report would eventually be published. “There are processes reports such as this have to go through before publication, and the committee is well informed of these,” he said.

The committee’s chairman, Dominic Grieve, said the decision to prevent publication before the election was “jaw-dropping” and that he could not understand on what basis it had been made.

“The protocols are quite clear. If the prime minister has a good reason for preventing publication he should explain to the committee what it is, and do it within 10 days of him receiving the report. If not it should be published,” he said.

A final draft of the Russian dossier, the product of 18 months work, was sent to Downing Street on 17 October and was originally intended for publication today. Political approval had expected by the end of last week.

It was intended to be the last step in what is conventionally a complex sign off process. The report has already been cleared by Britain’s spy agencies, which contributed to the research.

European commission chief says he regrets not getting involved in 2016 campaign

Boris Johnson told “so many lies” during the EU referendum campaign, the outgoing president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has said.

In a valedictory interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Juncker voiced regret he had not countered the claims of the leave campaign in 2016. The commission decided not to get involved on the advice of David Cameron, who feared interventions from Brussels would backfire.

Juncker said that had been a big mistake, adding: “So many lies were told, including by current prime minister, Boris Johnson, that there needed to be a voice to counter them.”

Juncker also pointed the blame for the 2016 result at pro-EU politicians, specifically “my friend” Tony Blair. He said the British, including the former Labour leader, had always seen the EU as an economic project and had shunned political union. “If you stick to that narrative for over 40 years, it should not come as a surprise when people remember it during the referendum.”

The veteran Luxembourg politician, who became commission president in 2014, said he had been sceptical remain would win. Juncker claimed he had told Cameron in 2014: “You are going to lose it.”

Juncker said he had become “an ideological target for Brexiters” and added it was important not to give Europeans “the false impression” that the EU was on the way to becoming a single state: “Even highly enthusiastic Europeans are against our union becoming a European melting pot.”

A wily political operator who has been in politics for four decades, Juncker also revealed how he handled Donald Trump, saying one of his “little tricks” was to use only US trade statistics, so the president could not dispute them.

Juncker also described how he sought to hammer home to Trump that Brussels has sole competence to strike trade deals for EU’s 28 member states. He said Angela Merkel and other EU leaders Trump had spoken to were all important but “the wrong people” to speak to about trade. “That impressed him,” Juncker said.

The commission president said “dumb nationalism” remained a threat to the EU, especially when established parties sought to mimic populists. Juncker, a member of the centre-right European People’s party, did not elaborate on whether he thought his political group had been too soft on colleagues bending the rule of law, such as Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

He sounded a sceptical note about the global school strike movement, whose figurehead is Greta Thunberg, saying: “I really like young people getting involved, but I am also not naive. Much of what is being presented there in such sentimental terms is not so easy to achieve in reality. Classical industry must continue to have a home in Europe.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Juncker also reflected on the trauma of his father, who was forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht after Nazi Germany invaded Luxembourg. The shadow of the second world war shaped the outlook of Juncker, who was born in 1954.

He also defended his exuberant greetings, with kisses for autocrats, such as Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “My staff sometimes warns me not to hug this or that person. But I’ve been kissed by Erdoğan, so I kiss him, too. I kissed Putin and I was kissed by Putin. In either case, it certainly didn’t hurt Europe.”

Asked about persistent rumours that he drank too much, Juncker said “such false claims hurt my family more than me”. Juncker, who has been troubled by poor health during his time in Brussels, is taking a leave of absence for an operation. But his departure as commission president has been delayed, as his successor, Ursula von der Leyen, has encountered problems getting her team approved by the European parliament.

Bercow, who was persistently accused of bias by Brexit-backing MPs during his term as Speaker, gave a valedictory speech to the Foreign Press Association, revealing himself to be a remainer.

“I don’t think it helps the UK. Brexit is the biggest mistake of this country after the war. I respect [the] prime minister, [Boris] Johnson, but Brexit doesn’t help us. It’s better to be part of the [EU] power bloc,” Bercow said, according to the journalist Antonello Guerrera, of La Repubblica, who attended the event in London.

However, Bercow rejected the idea he had blocked Brexit, insisting “it was parliament” that had prevented Britain from leaving before now, “not me”.
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At the event, Bercow said: “I respect the prime minister and he has the right to do what he did also in the House of Commons. But my job was to stand up for the rights of the House of Commons. No apology for championing the rights of parliament.”

He rejected recent comments by the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, who described Westminster as a “zombie parliament”.

“He has the material disadvantage of being totally wrong,” he said. “Parliament is no disgrace at all and did its job well.”

The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green party said they would give voters one “remain choice” across England and Wales, with candidates standing aside in seats in Brighton, Exeter and Bristol, parts of London and the south-west, and 11 of Wales’s 40 constituencies.

The project, called Unite to Remain and led by the former MP Heidi Allen, was launched more widely on Thursday after its initial success in the Brecon and Radnorshire byelection earlier this year. The Greens and Plaid Cymru stood aside for the Lib Dem candidate in that seat, ousting the sitting Conservative, Chris Davies, in the process.

The dossier is understood to examine the flow of Russian money into UK politics in general and the Conservative party in particular. It looks at the murders carried out by Russian spies on British soil, including last year’s novichok attack in Salisbury on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and at attacks on the UK’s allies.

On Friday, Labour named three Russian émigrés who have made substantial contributions to Conservative coffers. They include Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of Vladimir Putin’s former finance minister, who has given £1,223,774, including £300,100 this year.
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