Tag: Brexit

It follows Boris Johnson’s departure on Monday when he became the second cabinet minister to resign in 24 hours, claiming Britain was “headed for the status of colony”. Cabinet: who's in and who's out David Davis Goes to the backbenches after kicking off the ministerial reshuffle with his resignation as Brexit secretary over Theresa May's negotiation plans. “At least half a dozen people made that point and the prime minister responded, too – what is good for the country is a Conservative government.” Earlier, Downing Street announced Johnson’s resignation as foreign secretary, just minutes before May addressed MPs about the softer Brexit plan agreed at Chequers on Friday. Many of the prime minister’s supporters believe she would win a contest and cement her authority; but May would face a leadership challenge if she lost, with Johnson among the potential candidates. Asked whether May would contest a no confidence vote, a Downing Street source said simply: “Yes.” The Guardian view on Boris Johnson’s resignation: good riddance to a national embarrassment | Editorial Read more Asked whether May was confident that the rest of her cabinet backed the negotiating position agreed at Chequers, which is due to be fleshed out in a white paper later this week, he added: “There is no reason to think otherwise.” The carefully choreographed meeting last week resulted in a deal May believed her cabinet had signed up to, which would create a “UK-EU free trade area” for goods, governed by a “common rule book”. Johnson was the cabinet minister most closely associated with Vote Leave’s controversial claim that Brexit would deliver an extra £350m a week for the NHS. Davis was replaced as Brexit secretary by fellow leaver Dominic Raab. One senior Brexiter suggested more resignations could follow in the coming weeks and months. “If you’d told me two hours ago that this is how we’d end the day, I’d have bitten your hand off.” As Johnson’s resignation was announced, Labour MPs were being briefed about the government’s soft Brexit plan by May’s de facto deputy, David Lidington, in a sign that Downing Street is beginning to accept that it will need to draw on cross-party support to get her plans through parliament, without the backing of hardline Brexiters.

British government in crisis amid Brexit resignations and an incoming visit from U.S. President Trump. Fox News contributor Nigel Farage sounds off on 'The Story.' FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news…

We’re going to close down this live blog after a frenetic day of politics news. Thanks for reading. You can catch up on the full story here: And here’s a summary of what’s happened this afternoon... May’s position looked precarious as she was hit by a series of high profile resignations, including those of the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and the Brexit secretary, David Davis, both Brexit supporters. The long-serving health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was appointed foreign secretary to replace Johnson and Dominic Raab was made Brexit secretary in place of Davis. Matt Hancock took over Hunt’s role at the Department for Health, while Jeremy Wright was moved from attorney general to culture secretary to replace him. And Chris Heaton-Harris became a junior minister at the Brexit department, replacing Steve Baker. May addressed backbenchers and many sought to project an image of unity afterwards. But it took less than an hour for one attendee to hand in his resignation. Guy Verhofstadt, the chief Brexit coordinator for the European Parliament, says he hopes today’s resignations will lead to unity in the UK government.

Summary Disunity over Brexit is leading to the treachery of long knives among British Prime Minister Theresa May’s fellow Tories. Polls suggest that voters disfavor a party purge of Mrs. May and expect a general election to decide themselves on the UK leadership. More significantly, historical precedent suggests that hung parliaments don’t last long before political treachery leads to an early vote. Polls show that the Conservatives and Labour are closely matched, though they lean toward Labour. Today’s Labour Party is not Tony Blair’s Labour party, and it is reasonable to expect that British equities will dive were Labour to assume power. The current maneuvering over Brexit is looking a lot like the classic treachery of long knives that periodically disturbs the political peace of the British Isles. Hung parliaments don’t last very long before such treachery leads to new elections. Current polling suggests a general election could lead to a Labour Party victory which this brief podcast (3:01) suggests would bring about an unprecedented intrusiveness in the economy from which investors will likely flee.

* Sterling hit as two UK ministers resign over Brexit * Nikkei leads Asia shares higher in early trade * Balanced U.S. jobs data suggest Fed can stay gradual on hikes By Wayne Cole SYDNEY, July 9 (Reuters) - Asian share markets crept higher on Monday following favourable U.S. jobs data, while sterling slipped after two members of the British government resigned over Brexit and put the future of Prime Minister Theresa May in doubt. The pound peeled off around a third of a U.S. cent to $1.3292 in early trading as news broke British Brexit Secretary David Davis and Brexit Minister Steven Baker had resigned. The loss came just two days after a meeting at May’s Chequers country residence supposedly sealed a cabinet deal on Brexit and underlines the deep divisions in her ruling Conservative Party over the departure from the EU. Sentiment in other markets was mostly positive after Friday’s U.S. payrolls report showed tame wages and more people looking for work. “The combination of rising employment and increased labour force participation suggests healthy but not tightening labour market conditions in June, something that will allow the Fed to continue to hike rates at a gradual pace,” said Kevin Cummins, a senior U.S. economist at RBS. The balanced report helped Wall Street end last week in the black and Japan’s Nikkei followed up with gains of 1 percent on Monday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.2 percent, on top of 0.7 percent rally on Friday when the launch of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports came and went without too many fireworks. “While trade tensions fan concerns about the future, incoming data show a soaring U.S. economy, a healthy labour market, and some rebound in Europe and Japan,” said Barclays economist Michael Gapen. “For now, overall policies and financial conditions still support growth and investment,” he added. “A sharper-than-expected China slowdown from a domestic credit crunch and external trade tensions could be the main risk to global growth.” The focus this week would be on Chinese data for June covering inflation, new loans and international trade.

The turmoil over Brexit faced by Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May deepened significantly on Monday when one of her most senior Cabinet members, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, resigned.

British FM Boris Johnson resigns from his role in the British cabinet amid growing tensions over Brexit. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed perspectives.…

One of the negotiating positions agreed at Chequers (May wins cabinet agreement for soft Brexit plan, 7 July) is that the UK will “maintain a common rulebook for all goods” but the British parliament could choose not to continue harmonisation, ie it could choose to throw away the rulebook. This may allow different factions in the cabinet to interpret the negotiating document as they please, but it puts the negotiators on both sides of the Channel at a disadvantage. How are they going to make sense of the cabinet’s position? SP Chakravarty Bangor, Gwynedd • It’s time your leader writers, columnists and metropolitan readers woke up to the fact that the arch Brexiter has already won the argument. In brief, only the UK parliament, answerable directly to the UK electorate, should make our laws and only the UK courts should enact those laws. It will take some time and Theresa May’s proposals are a reasonable start. Laurence Williamson Newlyn, Cornwall • Assuming it will be confirmed that the Electoral Commission has found irregularities in the spending return filed by the official leave campaign for the EU referendum (Report, 5 July) and that this campaign failed to comply with electoral law, further doubts will inevitably arise as to the legitimacy of the result. We have no domestic remedy for this approach in UK law but, given the evidence of breaches of electoral law by both the main leave campaigns, the mandate for Brexit is seriously undermined. By the current proposal, that border would only be frictionless for goods but not for people. There will have to be border control to keep some people out of Northern Ireland and if that is the case then the border is no longer frictionless.

There are just two subjects that the papers are interested in today: the World Cup game between England and Sweden and Theresa May winning support for her Brexit deal at the Chequers summit on Friday. Most of the newspapers agree that the Brexit agreement is a victory for May. The Guardian splashes with the headline: “May wins cabinet agreement for soft Brexit plan” and reports that the prime minister managed to sign up “her fractious cabinet” to a “controversial plan to match EU standards on food and goods”, but that this had not gone down well with Tory Brexiters. (@claremargetson) Tomorrow’s Guardian front page #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/2gc8Zbryba July 6, 2018 The headline on the strongly pro-Brexit Daily Telegraph is: “Cabinet signs up to May’s Brexit deal” and they report: “Theresa May won her battle with Eurosceptic ministers on Friday night as she announced the cabinet has signed up to a Brexit deal that keeps Britain tied to EU rules and regulations indefinitely.” The headline on the FT Weekend is “May wins backing for ‘soft’ Brexit after facing down cabinet rebels” and the i weekend is even more stark with “May takes back control”. (@hendopolis) I WEEKEND: May takes back control #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/KppG3nJdMS July 6, 2018 (@hendopolis) DAILY TELEGRAPH: Cabinet signs up to May’s Brexit deal #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/cJrJl5cCHl July 6, 2018 The Daily Mail is less than impressed with the deal that has been reached, calling it “an uneasy agreement on a 12-point ‘compromise’, which could see Britain tied to some EU rules forever”. (@hendopolis) DAILY MAIL Soft Brexit threat to May #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/dIOqFqdcQj July 6, 2018 The Times is interested in how the deal will affect Boris Johnson, who led a group of Tory rebels who were calling for a tougher line on Brexit, and whom they claim will be sacked “if he rebels again”. Their headline is: “Johnson in firing line as PM claims Brexit victory”. (@hendopolis) THE TIMES: Johnson in firing line as PM claims Brexit victory #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/H4avZ0w7F7 July 6, 2018 The Daily Express is full of cheer at the news saying “Cabinet agree 12-point Brexit plan AND there’s more good news ... Trump ready to offer UK zero tariff trade deal”, based on comments from the US ambassador to the UK, Robert “Woody” Johnson, that zero tariffs could be on the table as the US president seeks to get a “quick deal” on trans-Atlantic trade. (@hendopolis) EXPRESS: Trump ready to offer UK zero tariff deal #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/Kq6M3G1Rdi July 6, 2018 The Mirror doesn’t have Brexit on the front page, instead dedicating the full page to Harry Kane and the rest of the English football side, with the headline: “Captain Fantastic: My band of brothers”, though the paper does dedicate page 11 to the Brexit discussions held at “May’s pad”, as they call Chequers, saying the PM had succeeded in uniting the Tories, and leading with the “dramatic retreat” by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and David Davis from threats they would quit over the Brexit deal. (@hendopolis) MIRROR: My band of Brothers #england #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/F4UOUs65is July 6, 2018

EU negotiators did not want to shoot down the prime minister’s hard-won Brexit compromise on day one, but remain deeply uneasy about giving the UK unique status outside the EU. What the cabinet has agreed at Chequers Brexit meeting Read more One diplomatic source said the British prime minister had gone “through political hell” to secure the Chequers deal but that did not mean that “the British compromise is more palatable to the European Union”. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, is expected to give his verdict at a meeting of Europe ministers on 20 July. “The EU is not going to negotiate its entire future relationship with a G7 country in three months,” said one senior diplomatic source, describing the single market for goods proposal as “very complex” requiring “a long time to work out”. Trust us,’ is not going to fly,” said another diplomatic source. Sources said May’s customs compromise – “a facilitated customs arrangement” – looks very similar to the “new customs partnership” that the EU rejected as “magical thinking” 11 months ago. At a meeting last Thursday, EU Brexit experts criticised what they saw as the UK’s failure to propose realistic proposals to avoid a hard border in Ireland. Barnier’s fallback plan for Ireland means putting a border in the sea, but May has said no British prime minister could accept that. I look forward to White Paper. Next negotiations w/ #UK on WP, & Withdrawal Agreement, w/c 16 July #Brexit July 6, 2018 Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian MEP, who is coordinating the European parliament’s Brexit position, tweeted: Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) I read the #Chequers statement with great interest.