Brexit to clarify difficult political situation in United Kingdom

Oct. 12, 2016 - PRLog -- The UK will begin the formal Brexit negotiation process by the end of March 2017, said British Prime Minister Theresa May at Conservative party conference in Birmingham on October 2.

"Let's be clear about what is going to happen. Article Fifty – triggered no later than the end of March. A Great Repeal Bill to get rid of the European Communities Act – introduced in the next Parliamentary session. Our laws made not in Brussels but in Westminster. Our judges sitting not in Luxembourg but in courts across the land. The authority of EU law in this country ended forever," she stated.

The triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty sets a two-year deadline for the exit process that may be extended only by unanimous agreement of all EU Member States.

According to foreign Media, some Tories had duly been urging Prime Minister to delay invoking Article 50, at least until after the second round of the French presidential election in May, or even after the German federal election next September. According to the politicians, the change of leadership in these countries could contribute to "soft" Brexit.

However, Theresa May has rejected this advice. According to the analysts, it has made it more likely that the UK's departure from the EU will turn to a "hard" Brexit, with Britain leaving both the customs union and the EU's single market.

Commenting on the British government's decision to launch Brexit in March 2017, Simon Lightfoot, researcher of European Politics at the University of Leeds, noted that it might be more to do with UK domestic politics.

"The next UK election will be 7 May 2020, so if Brexit negotiations take two years that is March 2019, meaning that the Brexit issue won't overshadow the campaigning for the general election. There are also a number of MPs who are pushing for Brexit to start soon. It is important to remember the government only has a majority of 16 so it would not take many 'rebels' to scupper the domestic agenda of the new government, which is clearly different to the stance of the previous Cameron administration," he told PenzaNews.

According to him, the UK government needs to get some sort of deal to restrict free movement.

"This was a key element of Theresa May's speech in Birmingham, especially the point about low skilled migration. Yet the government is also under pressure from many businesses to negotiate access to the single market. How they square that circle will be really interesting to watch unfold," Simon Lightfoot said.

Source: https://penzanews.ru/en/analysis/62949-2016