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Foreign Secretary: Brexit may have to be delayed

Published

6 years ago

6 minute read

LONDON — A key member of Prime Minister Theresa May’s government acknowledged Thursday that Britain’s exit from the European Union may have to be delayed if negotiations on a divorce deal drag on.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the BBC that while it is difficult to know whether negotiations will stretch to the final hours, a delay may be necessary to pass legislation to implement Brexit. His comments gained attention because of fears the country is simply not ready to leave — even though May’s Downing Street office insisted nothing had changed.

“I think it is true that if we ended up approving a deal in the days before 29 March then we might need some extra time to pass critical legislation, but if we are able to make progress sooner then that might not be necessary,” Hunt said.

The comments come as the influential think-tank , the Institute for Government, warned the government was not ready should a no-deal Brexit come to pass. The think-tank predicted that in a majority of broad policy areas, including health and borders, the government would be unable to avoid “major negative impacts.”

“It is not just the government that needs to be ready – business and citizens need to know how the changes will affect them and what they need to do,” it said in a report.

Britain’s carmakers issued a stark assessment Thursday about Brexit’s impact on the industry, warning that two-thirds of the country’s global trade is at risk if the U.K. leaves the European Union without an agreement on the future.

Investment in the industry fell 46 per cent last year and new car production dropped 9.1 per cent to 1.52 million vehicles in 2018, in part because of concerns over Brexit, the Society of Motor Manufacturing said. Chief executive Mike Hawes has described the threat of a no-deal as “catastrophic.”

“With fewer than 60 days before we leave the EU and the risk of crashing out without a deal looking increasingly real, UK Automotive is on red alert,” Hawes said. “Brexit uncertainty has already done enormous damage to output, investment and jobs.”

Hawes said the figures showing a drop in investment, stark though they are, pale in comparison to what is ahead should the U.K. leave the EU on March 29 without a deal, severing frictionless trade links overnight with the EU and other global markets. Britain’s Parliament has refused to rule out a no-deal Brexit, voting this week instead to give Prime Minister Theresa May more time to try to iron out a compromise with the EU.

“Brexit is the clear and present danger and, with thousands of jobs on the line, we urge all parties to do whatever it takes to save us from ‘no deal’,” Hawes said.

If no deal is in place, existing trade agreements with the EU will evaporate overnight. Without such agreements, economic chaos is likely to follow, with fears about trade in food, medicine and other essential supplies.

In another sign of the ticking clock, House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said a scheduled February recess for lawmakers may be scrapped.

May must report back to the House of Commons by Feb. 13, either with a reworked version of the deal or with a statement on what she plans to do next. She intends to return to Brussels in hopes of reopening negotiations on the most controversial aspect of the withdrawal deal, which covers the border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

This section of the deal, known as the backstop, would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU in order to remove the need for checks along the border. Supporters of a sharp exit with the EU fear it will trap Britain in regulatory lockstep with the trading bloc, and want the backstop replaced with unspecified “alternative arrangements.”

EU leaders have so far been unwilling to reconsider the withdrawal agreement. In a telephone call on Wednesday evening, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told May that it was necessary to have a backstop that was “legally robust and workable in practice.”

The border is crucial to the divorce deal because it will be the only land frontier between the U.K. and the EU after Brexit. Border checkpoints have disappeared since Ireland and Britain both became members of the EU single market in the 1990s, and since the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which largely ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

European Council President Donald Tusk also spoke with May and later tweeted: “The EU position is clear and consistent. The Withdrawal Agreement is not open for renegotiation.”

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press

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Border Patrol Agent Lashes Out At Biden-Harris Admin, Calling Job ‘Migrant Concierge Service’ Amid Border Crisis

Published on September 14, 2024

By

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

The border agent stated he is prepared to risk his career to bring attention to what he views as grave mismanagement and potential dangers posed by current border policies.

A Border Patrol agent criticized the recent changes in his role under the Biden-Harris administration, condemning it as transforming into a “migrant concierge service,” according to The New York Post Friday.

Zachary Apotheker, who joined the force in 2020, voiced his frustration over the shift in his duties under the Biden administration from intercepting drug traffickers and apprehending illegal entrants to what he now sees as aiding migrant entry, in an interview with the NYP. Apotheker highlighted concerns about security and vetting under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, noting that over 8 million migrants have crossed the southern border since January 2021, including members of the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua.

“I don’t want to bring people into the country. That’s not what I signed up to do,” Apotheker told NYP. Apotheker’s distress is further compounded by over 1.7 million illegal migrants who have evaded capture since Jan. 2021, as he shared encounters with victims of migrant-committed crimes, naming individuals and emphasizing the personal toll on him.

“I’m an apolitical person and I just want to do my job and protect this country,” the agent said, the NYP reported. “When I see people from another country coming here, getting resources beyond what the American citizen can get, that’s where I have to draw the line. And then they’re going out and committing crimes and we’re still not removing them and American citizens are being killed, women are being raped.”

Apotheker and multiple Border Patrol sources have raised concerns to the NYP about the inadequate documentation for unaccompanied migrant children under 14, including missing biometric data, complicating their safe relocation to families or sponsors in the U.S. He highlighted a backlog in the immigration system, noting that 291,000 migrant children have been released in the U.S. without court dates, with an additional 32,000 failing to appear for their scheduled hearings.

The border agent stated he is prepared to risk his career to bring attention to what he views as grave mismanagement and potential dangers posed by current border policies. “However bad you think it is now, it’s only going to be worse,” he warned.

The White House and Border Patrol did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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Rumored deal with Bloc Quebec party could keep Trudeau Liberals in power, stave off election

Published on September 10, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

“The federal government does not have a mandate to bargain with Quebec separatists at the expense of Alberta, the West and the rest of the country”

The possibility of an early Canadian election may not come to fruition after Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet hinted that an alliance between the separatist party and the Liberals under Justin Trudeau could become a reality.

Rumors began to swirl that a Bloc-Liberal deal could happen after Bloc House leader Alain Therrien said Sunday that the party’s “objectives remain the same, but the means to get there will be much easier.”

“We will negotiate and seek gains for Quebec … our balance of power has improved, that’s for sure,” he said, as reported by the Canadian Press.

Therrien made the comments in light of the possibility of a federal election taking place before fall 2025 after New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh pulled his official support for Trudeau’s Liberals last week.

Late last month, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre called on Singh to pull his support for Trudeau’s Liberals so that an election could be held.

Therrien also noted that the NDP pulling its support of the Trudeau Liberals has created a “window of opportunity” that his party may exploit. The Canadian Press reported that a person close to the Bloc party said directly that the NDP had in essence handed the party the balance of power.

As it stands now, the Bloc has 32 seats to the NDP’s 24, which is more than enough to prop up the Liberals, who have 154 seats.

As for Blanchet, he told the media on Monday that he was feeling “good” about his party’s newfound power. He then took a shot at Poilievre, saying he is more or less like Trudeau. “There are plenty of issues on which (Poilievre’s) in the same position as Justin Trudeau,” Blanchet said.

“Show us that you’re different, Justin Trudeau, apart from being against abortion, then we’ll see what you have to offer,” he said.

While most Conservative MPs are pro-life, Poilievre supports abortion and has a poor track record when it comes to life and family issues, with Campaign Life Coalition having given him a “red light” rating.

News of a possible Bloc-Liberal deal to keep Trudeau in power drew the immediate ire of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

“The federal government does not have a mandate to bargain with Quebec separatists at the expense of Alberta, the West and the rest of the country,” she wrote Monday on X. “If the Liberals go down this path, we need an election to be called immediately.”

On Tuesday, Blanchet responded to Smith’s comments to reporters by saying he found her remarks “funny,” adding that “Canadians are suddenly very interested in us.”

As for Trudeau, his woes continue to mount. LifeSiteNews recently reported how national elections campaign director for Canada’s federal Liberal Party announced he was stepping down because, according to sources close to the party, he does not think Trudeau can win a fourth consecutive election.

Recent polls show that the Conservatives under Poilievre would win a majority government in a landslide in an election held today. Singh’s NDP and Trudeau’s Liberals would lose a massive number of seats.

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