Tag: Theresa May

• Wednesday, November 14th 2018 - 08:54 UTC

  UK/EU Brexit announce “technical” breakthrough, but now it faces the political hurdle

  

  UK and EU officials have agreed the draft text of a Brexit agreement after months of negotiations. A cabinet source told the BBC that the document has been agreed at a technical level by officials from both sides after intensive discussions this week. A special cabinet meeting will be held at 14:00 GMT on Wednesday as Theresa May seeks ministers' backing.

• Tuesday, November 13th 2018 - 06:49 UTC

  Brexit talks “immensely difficult” and are “now in the endgame” admits Theresa May

  

  Negotiations over the UK's departure from the EU are “now in the endgame”, Theresa May says. Addressing the Lord Mayor's Banquet in the City of London, the prime minister said the talks were “immensely difficult”, but the sides were working “through the night” to make progress.“This will not be an agreement at any cost,” the PM added.

• Friday, November 9th 2018 - 08:50 UTC

  Armistice centenary: Theresa May will lay wreaths in Belgium and France

  

  Theresa May will lay a wreath at the graves of the first and last UK soldiers killed in World War One as she travels to France and Belgium to mark the Armistice centenary. The prime minister will be joined by French President Emmanuel Macron and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel for the commemorations on Friday.

• Thursday, November 8th 2018 - 08:33 UTC

  Brexit talks stalled: EU/UK November 17 summit moved to end of the month

  

  Theresa May has told the British Cabinet that she will not agree a withdrawal deal with the EU “at any cost”. The Prime Minister said any agreement will be dependent on an “acceptable” framework for future relations in areas like trade and security, expected to be covered in a separate political declaration.

• Thursday, November 8th 2018 - 08:33 UTC

  Blair calls for a second Brexit referendum: the great nations of Europe must stick together

  

  Leaving the European Union without a deal would be “absurd” and the whole process of Brexit can still be stopped, Tony Blair has claimed. The former prime minister said the British people should be given the chance to vote again on whether to remain in the EU because otherwise they faced either a “pointless” or a “painful” version of Brexit.

• Wednesday, November 7th 2018 - 08:30 UTC

  EU and Brexit: Far from an agreement “to guarantee peace in Ireland”

  

  A deal on the Irish border to break the Brexit deadlock is not close, the EU’s chief negotiator said on Tuesday. Michel Barnier was speaking as Theresa May briefed the Cabinet on her plans to achieve a breakthrough in time to secure a special Brexit summit to seal an agreement in November.

• Wednesday, November 7th 2018 - 08:17 UTC

  UK ministers want a Brexit deal by end of November and plan campaign to sell the deal to MPs and public

  

  Senior British ministers have agreed they want to reach a Brexit deal with the EU by the end of November, sources say. “Everyone saw the difficulties of leaving it longer,” a senior cabinet source told the BBC. Meanwhile, the BBC has seen a detailed suggested timetable of how the government could try to sell a deal to MPs and the public.

• Tuesday, November 6th 2018 - 08:36 UTC

  Brexit deal on the Irish border must be agreed and shared, Dublin tells London

  

  Irish premier Leo Varadkar has told Theresa May that he will not accept a Brexit deal which gives the UK the unilateral power to halt “backstop” arrangements for the border with Northern Ireland. In a phone conversation with the Taoiseach, Mrs. May said that any agreement would have to include a mechanism to bring an end to the backstop – designed to ensure there is no hard border in Ireland if the UK and EU fail to reach a broader trade deal.

• Tuesday, November 6th 2018 - 08:22 UTC

  “Business as usual with Iran, and take advantage”, UK government tells British companies

  

  Britain will continue to expand trade relations with Iran despite Donald Trump’s decision to re-impose sanctions on the state, Downing Street has said. The government “regrets” the US president’s move to restore restrictions on Tehran that were lifted when it signed up to a nuclear deal in 2015, and believes the agreement makes the world a safer place, No 10 insisted.

• Monday, November 5th 2018 - 08:49 UTC

  UK's top lawyers and business leaders have urged for another Brexit referendum

  

  Members of Parliament have been urged to back another Brexit referendum by 1,400 of the UK's top lawyers. They have written to Prime Minister Theresa May to say that Parliament should not be bound by the 2016 vote. “Democratic government is not frozen in time,” the letter said.