Brexit WILL begin! Theresa May focusing on ‘striking a deal’ for Britain leaving EU
WESTMINSTER’S hung parliament chaos will not delay the crunch talks about Britain’s EU exit, Theresa May vowed today.
By MACER HALL
Express.co.uk
Fri, Jun 9, 2017
As shock waves from the general election reverberated around Europe, the beleaguered Prime Minister was forced to reject claims from Brussels that the negotiations on the UK’s future relationship with the bloc should be delayed.
Senior Eurocrats suggested the incoming government should be given extra time to adjust to the shattering blow of the vanished Tory majority before the first head-to-head wrangle begins.
And some anti-Brussels campaigners urged Mrs May to quit and make way for a fresh prime minister to lead the wrangle with EU officials.
But Mrs May insisted she will stick to the timetable of starting the Brexit talks a week on Monday.
She confirmed in her Downing Street statement: “This Government will guide the country through the crucial Brexit talks that begin in just 10 days and deliver on the will of the British people by taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union.”
The Prime Minister and her team are due to go head-to-head with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the bloc’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier at the commission’s Brussels headquarters when the talks open.
Mrs May spoke out after Mr Barnier suggested the meeting in Brussels on June 19 could be pushed back.
He said: “Brexit negotiations should start when UK is ready; timetable and EU positions are clear. Let’s put our minds together on striking a deal.”
And in a scathing response to the election result, European Parliament chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said: “Yet another own goal, after Cameron now May, will make already complex negotiations even more complicated.”
Other Eurocrats suggested the current timetable should be maintained because the UK’s 2019 departure date could not be shifted under the terms of the EU treaties.
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