jeremy corbyn
FILE PHOTO: The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney leaves after a news conference at the Bank of England in London, Britain February 7, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo
April 24, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is searching for a new governor of the Bank of England to succeed Mark Carney in early 2020.
Finance minister Philip Hammond is hoping that concerns about Brexit will not deter potential applicants.
Below are possible contenders to run the BoE which oversees the world’s fifth-biggest economy and its huge finance industry.
ANDREW BAILEY
The former deputy BoE governor was tipped by analysts as Carney’s most likely successor. But delays to the search, after Carney extended his time in London, have raised questions about whether Hammond sees him as the best candidate.
Bailey, 60, was deputy governor with a focus on banks before becoming chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, a markets regulator.
While at the BoE, Bailey helped to steer Britain’s banks through the global financial crisis.
Heading the FCA is fraught with risks. Lawmakers criticised Bailey for not publishing all of a report into alleged misconduct by bank RBS. Bailey cited privacy restrictions.
As FCA boss, Bailey sits on important panels at the BoE that oversee banks. Although he has never been interest-rate setter, he once ran the BoE international economic analysis team.
RAGHURAM RAJAN
Rajan, 56, headed the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to 2016, and was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund between 2003 and 2006 when he warned of the risk of a financial crisis.
Now a professor at Chicago Booth business school, Rajan has published a book on dissatisfaction with markets and the state – touching on some of the underlying issues behind Brexit.
Rajan unexpectedly did not seek a renewal of his three-year term at the RBI, having faced hostility from some sections of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party who disliked his less nationalist stance and brief forays into political territory.
Rajan declined to comment when asked by Reuters last week whether he would consider a return to active policymaking.
MINOUCHE SHAFIK
Egyptian-born Shafik, 57, was a BoE deputy governor between 2014 and 2017, in charge of markets and banking, including the central bank’s asset purchase programme. She quit the job early to become director of the London School of Economics.
Between 2008 and 2011 she was the top civil servant at Britain’s ministry for overseas aid and was then deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund, where she represented the fund in the Greek debt crisis.
Shafik would become the first woman to head the BoE, and was only its second female deputy governor.
BEN BROADBENT AND DAVE RAMSDEN
Broadbent, 54, and Ramsden, 55, are deputy governors for monetary policy and for markets and banking respectively.
Broadbent, a former Goldman Sachs economist who trained as a classical pianist, is respected for his economic analysis but has less experience on banking oversight.
Ramsden was the Treasury’s chief economic advisor.
The two other BoE deputy governors, Jon Cunliffe and Sam Woods, are less likely contenders. Woods focuses mostly on financial regulation while Cunliffe – a former British ambassador to the European Union – would be aged 66 at the start of the term which usually runs for eight years.
SHRITI VADERA
Vadera, 56, has no central banking experience but is seen as a contender due to her current role as non-executive chairwoman of Santander UK, one of Britain’s biggest banks, and her time as a junior business minister during the financial crisis.
Vadera served as a minister from 2007 to 2009 after a career in investment banking and a period at the finance ministry.
In 2008, she was part of a small group of ministers and officials who devised a plan worth hundreds of billions of pounds in loan guarantees to keep high-street banks in business.
ANDY HALDANE
The BoE’s chief economist, Haldane has developed a reputation for floating unconventional ideas, including the possibility that music apps such as Spotify and multiplayer online games might give central bankers just as a good a sense of what is going on in the economy as traditional surveys.
In 2012, he praised the anti-capitalist Occupy movement for suggesting new ways to fix the shortcomings of global finance. Haldane has experience of both sides of the BoE, having served as executive director for financial stability, overseeing the risks to the economy from the banking system. But he might be seen as too much of a maverick to take the job of governor.
A LABOUR PARTY GOVERNOR?
The prospect of the left-wing Labour Party taking power has grown as Prime Minister Theresa May struggles to break the Brexit impasse.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his would-be finance minister John McDonnell are socialists and have in the past proposed that the BoE should fund investment in infrastructure, a big change from its current focus on inflation.
Former members of Labour’s economic advisory committee included U.S. academic and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Ann Pettifor, a British economist who is an austerity critic, and former BoE rate-setter David Blanchflower.
(Writing by William Schomberg and David Milliken, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Source: OANN
A mourner wearing a Gryffindor scarf holds an order of service as she arrives for the funeral of murdered journalist Lyra McKee at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland April 24, 2019. Brian Lawless/Pool via REUTERS
April 24, 2019
By Amanda Ferguson
BELFAST (Reuters) – The leaders of Britain and Ireland joined hundreds of mourners on Wednesday at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee whose killing by an Irish nationalist militant gunman has sparked outrage in the province.
The New IRA group, which opposes Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord, admitted one of its members shot 29-year-old McKee dead in Londonderry on Thursday when they opened fire on police officers during a riot McKee was watching.
The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are exploiting a two-year political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
In a statement issued ahead of the funeral, McKee’s family described the writer and lesbian and gay rights activist as a smart, strong-minded woman who believed passionately in justice, inclusivity and truth, and would not wish ill on anyone.
“We would ask that Lyra’s life and her personal philosophy are used as an example to us all as we face this tragedy together. Lyra’s answer would have been simple, the only way to overcome hatred and intolerance is with love, understanding and kindness,” they said.
Northern Ireland’s political parties, which are broadly split between Irish nationalists aspiring to unite the British region with Ireland and unionists who want it to remain British, have called for calm in a rare joint statement condemning the murder.
The party leaders joined British Prime Minister Theresa May, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Irish President Michael D. Higgins and the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, at the funeral in McKee’s native Belfast.
(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, writing by Padraic Halpin; editing by Kate Holton)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney arrives for a G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting at the IMF and World Bank’s 2019 Annual Spring Meetings, in Washington, April 12, 2019. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan
April 18, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is starting its search for a new governor of the Bank of England to succeed Mark Carney who is due to step down in January 2020.
Carney has twice extended his term in charge of the British central bank in order to help guide the economy through Brexit.
But he has ruled out a further delay even though Britain’s departure from the European Union remains up in the air.
Finance minister Philip Hammond is hoping that concerns about Brexit will not deter potential applicants.
Following is a summary of possible contenders to run the BoE which oversees the world’s fifth-biggest economy and Britain’s huge finance industry.
ANDREW BAILEY
A former deputy BoE governor, Bailey was tipped by analysts as Carney’s most likely successor. But the delays to the search for the next BoE governor has raised questions about whether finance minister Philip Hammond sees him as the best candidate.
Bailey reached the role of deputy governor at the BoE with a focus on banks before becoming chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, a financial markets regulator.
In his time at the BoE, Bailey helped to steer Britain’s banks through the global financial crisis, enhancing his reputation as a safe pair of hands.
But heading the FCA is fraught with risks. Lawmakers in parliament’s Treasury Committee criticized Bailey for not publishing all of a report into alleged misconduct by bank RBS. Bailey has cited privacy restrictions.
As FCA boss, Bailey sits on important panels at the BoE that oversee banks. Although he has never been interest-rate setter, he once ran the BoE international economic analysis team.
BEN BROADBENT AND DAVE RAMSDEN
Broadbent and Ramsden are deputy governors for monetary policy and for markets and banking respectively.
Broadbent, a former Goldman Sachs economist who trained as a classical pianist, is respected for his economic analysis but has less experience on banking oversight.
Ramsden was the Treasury’s chief economic advisor before joining the BoE.
The two other BoE deputy governors, Jon Cunliffe and Sam Woods, are less likely contenders. Woods focuses mostly on financial regulation while Cunliffe – a former British ambassador to the European Union – would be aged 66 at the start of the term which usually runs for eight years.
ANDY HALDANE
The BoE’s chief economist, Haldane has developed a reputation for floating unconventional ideas, including the possibility that music apps such as Spotify and multiplayer online games might give central bankers just as a good a sense of what is going on in the economy as traditional surveys. In 2012, he praised the anti-capitalist Occupy movement for suggesting new ways to fix the shortcomings of global finance. Haldane has experience of both sides of the BoE, having served as executive director for financial stability, overseeing the risks to the economy from the banking system. But he might be seen as too much of a maverick to take the job of governor.
OUTSIDERS?
The announcement of Carney, the first non-British governor of the BoE in more than three centuries, was a surprise.
But his tenure has been seen as a success for financial diplomacy, and the government is keen to promote what it calls a “global Britain” after the country leaves the European Union.
RAGHURAM RAJAN
Rajan, 56, was governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to 2016, and chief economist at the International Monetary Fund between 2003 and 2006, when he warned that financial innovation could trigger a crisis.
Now a finance professor at Chicago Booth business school, Rajan has just published a book on populist dissatisfaction with markets and the state – touching on some of the underlying issues that drove the Brexit vote in 2016.
Rajan unexpectedly did not seek a renewal of his three-year term at the RBI, having faced hostility from some sections of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party who disliked his less nationalist stance and brief forays into political territory.
Rajan declined to comment when asked by Reuters last week whether he would consider a return to active policymaking.
A LABOUR PARTY GOVERNOR?
The prospect of the left-wing Labour Party taking power has grown as Prime Minister Theresa May struggles to break the Brexit impasse in parliament.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his would-be finance minister John McDonnell are socialists and have in the past proposed that the BoE should fund investment in infrastructure, a big change from its current focus on inflation.
Former members of Labour’s economic advisory committee included U.S. academic and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Ann Pettifor, a British economist who is an austerity critic and former BoE rate-setter David Blanchflower.
(Writing by William Schomberg and David Milliken; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Source: OANN
Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home, as Brexit uncertainty continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
April 16, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s opposition Labour Party denied a Guardian newspaper report on Tuesday that Brexit talks with Prime Minister Theresa May’s government had stalled.
The newspaper had said talks had stalled due to a Conservative desire for post-Brexit deregulation including pursuing a U.S. trade deal.
“There has to be access to European markets and above all there has to be a dynamic relationship to protect the conditions and rights that we’ve got for environment and consumer workplace rights,” Corbyn said according to the Guardian.
“We’ve put those cases very robustly to the government and there’s no agreement as yet,” he added.
A Labour spokesman said it was wrong to say talks had stalled and that further meetings were planned for this week and next.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
Source: OANN
Anti-Brexit protesters hold EU flags as they demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament, as uncertainty over Brexit continues, in London, Britain, April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
April 12, 2019
By Guy Faulconbridge, Kylie MacLellan and Andrew MacAskill
LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom now has until Oct. 31 to leave the European Union but the British political elite is still squabbling over how, when or if to Brexit.
Some EU officials think the United Kingdom could change its mind – a spectacular reversal that would illustrate the bloc’s fortitude and keep one of Europe’s top powers inside the club.
Eurosceptic supporters of Brexit say the divorce is under threat from what they cast as an undemocratic plot that risks undermining political stability in the United Kingdom.
Below are possible scenarios:
1) NO BREXIT: The fresh delay gives time for the opponents of the divorce to push for a revocation of the formal Article 50 divorce notification, or for a referendum – either via parliament or an election.
Prime Minister Theresa May, who voted for remaining the EU in 2016, has repeatedly ruled out either revocation or another referendum. But if she is toppled, a successor might be tempted to call an election.
The outcome of any election is uncertain and while both main parties’ manifestos support Brexit, the opposition Labour Party backs a “confirmatory referendum” on any deal.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who voted against membership in 1975 and gave only reluctant backing to the 2016 campaign to remain in the EU, has signaled only lukewarm backing for another referendum. His party, though, is clear it wants one.
May’s finance minister, Philip Hammond, said on Friday it was very likely that the idea of a second Brexit referendum would again be put to parliament at some point, though the government remained opposed to any new plebiscite.
Parliament has been in deadlock over the terms of Brexit, having rejected May’s withdrawal plan three times since January.
When over the past month lawmakers twice held a series of votes on the various Brexit options aimed at breaking the stalemate, a second referendum was the most popular option, although it fell short of reaching a majority.
On April 1, a proposal for another referendum drew the support of 280 lawmakers – 40 seats short of a majority. A week earlier, it had the backing of 268 lawmakers.
If parliament agreed to a second referendum, Britain would probably have to ask for an extension beyond the end of October to allow enough time for a campaign.
Yet in Brussels, that idea is not outrageous.
More delays are on the cards, depending on developments in Britain, according to EU officials and diplomats.
Three of the four former British prime ministers still alive – John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – have said a referendum is the way to resolve the crisis.
The case for a second referendum could be enhanced if europhile candidates – mainly from center-left parties – do well in the May 23-26 European Parliament elections.
To get another referendum, the British parliament would have to approve new legislation and settle on a question. Britain’s electoral regulator would then ideally need six months to test the question with the public and then grant a period for the campaign to take place, a spokesman said.
Both sides of the Brexit divide are preparing for the possibility of another referendum.
It is far from clear how the United Kingdom would vote and even if it did vote to remain, Brexit supporters would demand a third and decisive vote.
Goldman Sachs puts a 40 percent probability on a no Brexit.
2) HER KINGDOM FOR A DEAL: May still hopes parliament will approve the deal she completed with the EU in November, though it has gone down to repeated, heavy defeat in parliament since then. For a graphic of the recent votes in parliament, please see: https://tmsnrt.rs/2CI8MwU
May promised to resign if her deal is approved, but that moved neither eurosceptic nor pro-EU opponents to support her, so she is now warning that Brexit may never happen.
If talks with the Labour Party ultimately collapse, May has said she will accept the will of parliament on what to do next.
Votes in the fractious House of Commons have shown that none of the alternatives to May’s agreement – such as leaving with no deal, a referendum or a much closer post-Brexit economic relationship – can yet muster a majority.
One option that could win over Labour lawmakers is to have a post-Brexit customs union with the EU and to align with many of the rules of the bloc’s single market.
Brexiteers and many supporters of membership both say such an option is foolish as it would leave the United Kingdom with no say over rules it would have to abide by.
The EU would be happy to do that and could do it fast.
Such a deal, Brexiteers say, would be “Brexit In Name Only”.
Goldman Sachs puts a 50 percent probability on the ratification of a modified deal.
3) ELECTION: May’s deal fails again, parliament cannot agree on what to do and May, or a successor, calls an election.
Britain’s next national election is not due to be held until 2022, but there are two ways an earlier vote can be called:
a) Two-thirds of parliament’s 650 lawmakers vote in favor of holding an election.
b) If a motion of no confidence in the government is passed by a simple majority of lawmakers and no party can succeed in winning the confidence of the House of Commons over the next 14 days, an election is triggered.
4) NO DEAL: The chaos worsens in London and a hardline, Brexit-backing leader ultimately goes for a no-deal exit.
This is the nightmare scenario for many businesses. By stripping the world’s fifth largest economy of its complex foreign trade relationships at one stroke, it would spook financial markets and dislocate supply chains across Europe and beyond. The political and social impact is unclear.
No-deal means there would be no transition so the exit would be abrupt. Britain is a member of the World Trade Organization so tariffs and other terms governing its trade with the EU would be set under solely WTO rules.
Goldman puts a 10 percent probability on a no-deal exit.
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels and Helen Reid in London; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: OANN
British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives to hold a news conference after an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Susana Vera
April 11, 2019
By Alastair Macdonald
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Theresa May told fellow European Union leaders that she was taking emergency political measures not seen in Britain since World War Two as she urged them to give her more time to clinch a deal for an orderly Brexit.
People present at Wednesday night’s crisis summit in Brussels said the prime minister appealed to her continental peers to appreciate the significance of her move to launch talks with her Labour opponents, saying the last united front between the two big parties in the fiercely tribal Westminster parliamentary system was when Britain faced a German “blitzkrieg” bombing campaign and invasion threat.
“She explained about the cross-party talks and made the point that, while such cross-party talks are a normal part of democratic life in most member states, it was not the case in the United Kingdom,” said one participant at the meeting.
“And that the last time there was some real cross-party cooperation was during the Second World War.”
Most of the other 27 members of the European Council either lead coalition governments or must deal with other power-sharing arrangements, while cooperation of any sort between Labour and May’s Conservatives in peacetime is vanishingly rare – although May was part of a Conservative coalition with the smaller Liberal party in 2010-15.
“WE’LL MEET AGAIN”
British sources said May had been aware in advance of a need to convince the EU that she had a new strategy for securing the parliamentary majority she needs to ratify an exit treaty she negotiated with Brussels, which British lawmakers have rejected.
In particular, she wanted to explain to veterans of Europe’s compromise-and-coalition politics that her move to open talks last week with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was a “significant undertaking” that held out a promise of finally securing a deal, if the EU extended the Brexit deadline beyond Friday.
Other leaders, who gave May an extension of up to six months to Oct. 31, said they had got the point.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who leads a three-party minority coalition that is propped up by a fourth, came out of the meeting telling reporters that the delay to October was “to give a chance to the new thing that has happened in Britain — where for the first time since World War Two they are having consultations across the political divide”.
Adding to the historical atmospherics, he underlined his belief that the EU leaders have not yet seen the end of the Brexit story by serenading journalists with a whistled version of the 1939 British song “We’ll Meet Again”, a tune that for Britons recalls wartime solidarity and the “spirit of the Blitz”.
“A SERIOUS COUNTRY”
EU officials and diplomats said the new October deadline was a compromise between French President Emmanuel Macron and most others, including Germany, which wanted a longer extension.
But the leaders were also not in fact greatly convinced May’s new plan would work.
For that reason, they were ready to give Britain longer to avoid a disorderly Brexit, aware that May could step down or be forced out, and that new elections or a second referendum on EU membership are all possibilities in the coming months.
One reason Macron gave for preferring to give May only until June 30, as she herself had asked, was his view that Britain under a hardline pro-Brexit successor could disrupt the Union if it stayed in. For that reason, the extension contained clauses obliging Britain to maintain “sincere cooperation” as a member.
May assured her peers that she accepted that, people present said, insisting that Britain did not want to leave in a way that would make it harder to maintain good relations in future.
She took a pointed dig at Conservative rivals, such as anti-EU campaigner Jacob Rees-Mogg, who say Britain could block and veto legislation to hobble the EU if it were not able to leave immediately, according to one participant in the summit.
“She also … made the point that the United Kingdom was a serious country,” the source said, “and we should not get distracted by some non-members of the government who seem to be trying to create the opposite impression.”
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper in London and Teis Jensen in Copenhagen; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Source: OANN
British Prime Minister Theresa May holds a news conference following an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman
April 11, 2019
By William James and Kylie MacLellan
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May defended her decision to delay Brexit and seek a compromise exit plan with the opposition Labour Party as one angry lawmaker from her own party stood up in parliament on Thursday and asked her to resign.
The European Union has agreed to delay Brexit by up to six months to Oct. 31 while May seeks an agreement with Labour that she hopes will help get her three-times rejected exit deal approved by parliament.
“This is not the normal way of British politics … Reaching an agreement will not be easy, because to be successful it will require both sides to make compromises,” May told parliament.
May agreed the delay in the early hours of the morning at an EU summit in Brussels, ending the risk that Britain would leave the bloc without a deal on Friday but providing little new information on how she will resolve the country’s biggest political crisis in more than 70 years.
Sterling traders were left scratching their heads about whether the British currency should rise or fall.
But her statement on the decision to delay Britain’s EU exit for a second time brought angry reaction from hardliners who want to leave the EU as soon as possible.
Arch eurosceptic Bill Cash described it as “abject surrender”.
“Does she also accept that the Withdrawal Agreement undermines our democracy, the constitutional basis of Northern Ireland, our right to govern ourselves, control over our laws and undermines our national interest? Will she resign?” he said.
May retorted: “I think you know the answer to that.”
TAKE A BREAK
May said nothing was more pressing or vital than delivering Brexit, and emphasized that she wanted Britain to ratify an exit deal as quickly as possible to avoid taking part in European Parliament elections on May 23.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, with whom May is trying to negotiate a compromise on the shape of Britain’s long-term relationship with the EU, was critical of the need for further delay.
“This second extension in the space of a fortnight represents not only a diplomatic failure, but is another milestone in the government’s mishandling of the entire Brexit process,” he said.
Despite trading barbs, both May and Corbyn said they wanted to continue talks.
After months of late-night votes and bitter infighting, May urged lawmakers to take advantage of a break in parliamentary business until April 23rd – announced earlier in the day to cheers – and reflect upon the country’s situation.
“Let us then resolve to find a way through this impasse, so that we can leave the European Union with a deal as soon as possible,” she said.
But the eurosceptics in her party were in less reflective mood, warning May that if the result of negotiations with Labour was that they were asked to vote again on an unchanged deal, they would be ready to reject it for a fourth time.
“Perseverance is a virtue but sheer obstinacy is not,” said eurosceptic Conservative Member of Parliament Mark Francois.
(Editing by Stephen Addison)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO – British Prime Minister Theresa May is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain, April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
April 8, 2019
By Kylie MacLellan and William James
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to argue for a Brexit delay while her ministers hold crisis talks with Labour to try to break the deadlock in London.
Britain’s departure from the EU has already been delayed once but May is asking for yet more time as she courts veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, whose opposition Labour Party wants to keep Britain more closely tied to the bloc after Brexit.
“The Prime Minister has not yet moved off her red lines so we can reach a compromise,” Corbyn said ahead of further talks between his team and government ministers on Tuesday.
While May travels to Berlin and Paris ahead of an emergency EU summit in Brussels on Wednesday, British lawmakers will hold a 90-minute debate on her proposal to delay Britain’s EU departure date to June 30 from April 12.
The debate has been forced on the government by parliament passing a law on Monday which will give lawmakers the power to scrutinize and even make legally binding changes to May’s request to extend the Article 50 negotiating period again.
Labour’s demands include keeping Britain in a customs union with the EU, something which is hard to reconcile with May’s desire for Britain to have an independent trade policy.
The Telegraph reported Labour and the government were still discussing both a customs union and the idea of holding a confirmatory referendum on any deal they agree.
Both ideas are anathema to many in May’s party, whose rebels have helped trigger three parliamentary defeats of the withdrawal deal she negotiated with the EU last year.
“I’ve said many times before, we can be more, much more ambitious in our future relationship with the UK,” EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told a news conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Monday.
BREXIT DELAY?
The 2016 referendum revealed a United Kingdom divided over much more than EU membership, and has sparked impassioned debate about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and what it means to be British.
Yet, more than a week after Britain was originally supposed to have left the EU, nothing is resolved as May, the weakest British leader in a generation, battles to get a divorce deal ratified by a profoundly divided parliament.
If Britain’s exit is delayed beyond May 22, the EU has said it will have to take part in European Parliament elections. The British government on Monday took the legal steps necessary to take part in that vote.
“It does not make these elections inevitable, as leaving the EU before the date of election automatically removes our obligation to take part,” a government spokesman said.
EU leaders, fatigued by the serpentine Brexit crisis, must decide on Wednesday whether to grant May a further delay. The decision can be vetoed by any of the other 27 member states.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was “crucial to know when and on what basis (the) UK will ratify the Withdrawal Agreement” as the EU considers May’s request to delay.
Without an extension, Britain is due to leave the EU at 2200 GMT on Friday, without a deal to cushion the economic shock.
While the EU is not expected to trigger such a potentially disorderly no-deal exit, diplomats said all options were on the table – from refusing a delay to granting May’s request or pushing for a longer postponement.
But May is boxed in at home.
Brexiteers in her cabinet insisted on at most a short delay, while Mark Francois, deputy chief of the Conservatives’ hardline eurosceptic faction in parliament, demanded she resign and called on the party to vote on forcing her out – even though there is no formal provision to do so before December.
(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
Source: OANN
Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home, as Brexit uncertainty continues, in London, Britain April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
April 8, 2019
By Guy Faulconbridge and Elizabeth Piper
LONDON (Reuters) – The opposition Labour Party said on Monday that Prime Minister Theresa May had so far failed to convince it to support a divorce deal, two days before a European Union emergency summit where she will try to delay Britain’s April 12 departure.
Brexit has already been delayed once but May is asking the EU for yet more time as she courts veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, whose Labour Party wants to keep Britain more closely tied to the EU after Brexit.
Nearly three years after the United Kingdom shocked the world by voting by 52 percent to 48 to leave the EU, May warned that Brexit might never happen but said that she would do everything possible to make sure that it did.
Labour’s Brexit point man, Keir Starmer, said May’s government had so far not changed its position on Brexit and so no way forward had been agreed.
“Both us and the government have approached this in the spirit of trying to find a way forward. We haven’t found that yet. We will continue to do that,” Starmer said.
“The ball is the government’s court,” he added. “We need to see what they come back with and, when they do, we will take a collective position on that.”
What Starmer termed exchanges of communication had taken place over the weekend and, while no talks were scheduled for Monday, he said things could develop. He said an agenda had been circulated that included the idea of a confirmatory referendum.
May’s spokesman said she hoped further formal talks could take place later on Monday, and that she wanted to reach an agreement as soon as possible.
The spokeswoman said May wanted Britain to have an independent trading policy – something hard to reconcile with Labour’s demand for membership of a customs union – and that both sides would need to compromise.
The 2016 referendum revealed a United Kingdom divided over much more than EU membership, and has sparked impassioned debate about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and what it means to be British.
Yet, more than a week after Britain was originally supposed to have left the EU, nothing is resolved as the weakest leader in a generation battles to get a divorce deal ratified by a deadlocked parliament.
BREXIT DELAY?
EU leaders, fatigued by the serpentine Brexit crisis, must decide on Wednesday whether to grant May, who has asked for a postponement until June 30, a further delay. The decision can be vetoed by any of the other 27 member states.
Without an extension, the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU at 2200 GMT on Friday, without a deal to cushion the economic shock.
While the EU is not expected to trigger such a potentially disorderly no-deal exit, diplomats said all options were on the table – from refusing a delay to granting May’s request or pushing for a longer postponement.
May needs to convince EU leaders that she has a viable plan; she will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday to discuss Brexit.
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, was on Monday meeting Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Ireland, which depends heavily on Britain as both a market and a transit point and would be hit hardest by a no-deal Brexit.
As the crisis grinds on, one survey suggested that voters wanted a strong leader willing to force through broad political reform.
Research by the Hansard Society found that 54 percent of voters wanted a strong leader willing to break the rules, while 72 percent said the political system needed “quite a lot” or “a great deal” of improvement.
Confidence in the system is at the lowest level in the 15-year history of the survey, lower even than after a 2009 scandal when lawmakers were shown to have charged taxpayers expenses for everything from an ornamental duck house to cleaning out a moat.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Source: OANN
British opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in London, Britain, April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
April 7, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – The Jewish Labour Movement, which is affiliated to Britain’s main opposition Labour Party, passed a motion of no confidence in party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Sunday over his handling of anti-Semitism complaints, Sky News reported.
Corbyn, a veteran campaigner for Palestinian rights and a critic of the Israeli government, has long been accused of failing to tackle anti-semitism in the Labour Party.
Several lawmakers quit the party this year in protest against what they said was rising anti-Semitism within it and because they oppose Labour’s position on Brexit.
Corbyn has promised to drive anti-Semitism out of Labour, and earlier on Sunday, Shami Chakrabarti, the party’s legal policy chief, urged the Jewish Labour Movement to “stay in Labour and to tackle racism together”.
“My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is … not to personalize it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn because he is one person and he won’t be leader forever,” she told Sky.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Source: OANN
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