UK’s Government to Release Brexit Plan Which Caused Cabinet Reshuffle

UK’s Government to Release Brexit Plan Which Caused Cabinet Reshuffle

The UK government is set to publish on Thursday the Brexit deal plan of Prime Minister Theresa May which was adopted by her Cabinet at Chequers last Friday but has also caused high profile resignations.

May has had to reshuffle her Cabinet after it was shaken by the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson over her new Brexit plan.

The British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned from May’s Cabinet on Monday, a day after Brexit Secretary David Davis did the same.

On Monday, Housing Minister Dominic Raab replaced David Davis as Brexit Secretary, while May named Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt as Britain’s new Foreign Secretary.

As the British blueprint for Brexit is to be released on Thursday, UK government ministers promised it would help deliver a “practical and principled” Brexit through a “comprehensive vision” for future trade and no hard border in Northern Ireland, BBC News reports.

The UK voted to leave the European Union on June 24, 2016, in a referendum with 51.9% to 48.1% for Brexit. It is set to depart from the Union on 29 March 2019.

The adoption of the Brexit White Paper of May’s Cabinet had been delayed for months over intra-government disputes, and has still left many discontents such as the already former Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, who accused the Prime Minister of leading the UK into a “semi-Brexit” with the “status of a colony”.

May’s Brexit blueprint provides the UK having a “common rulebook” with the EU for all goods, including agricultural products, and for signing a “continued harmonisation” treaty with the EU to avoid border issues, including at the land UK – EU border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Under the plan, the British Parliament will be entitled to supervising the UK’s trade policy and to deciding when it needs to diverge from the EU rules.

May’s White Paper notably provides for a decoupling of goods and services – which is expected by many to become a major hurdle to its acceptance by the EU since that contradicts the essence of the common market. Services are expected to get a different arrangement with more flexible regulations.

Under the blueprint the EU’s top judicial body, the European Court of Justice, will not have direct jurisdiction in the UK but the British courts would be required to pay “due regard” to its rulings in those fields of complete alignment between Britain and the Union. At the same, time, a “joint institutional framework” will be set up to interpret UK – EU agreements.

Even though the EU and the UK will be treated as a “combined customs territory”, the free movement of people between them will be terminated. Nonetheless, a “mobility framework” will be established to facilitate travel between the two.

According to Dominic Raab, Britain’s new Brexit Secretary, the May plan provides for a proper balance between retaining the necessary arrangements with the EU, while also allowing the UK to diversify its global connections.

“This government is determined to make sure the UK is ready to lead the industries of the future and seize the opportunities of global trade,” he said.

“At the same time, we need to cater for the deeply integrated supply chains that criss-cross the UK and EU and which have developed over our 40 years of membership,” Raab stated.

“It is a vision that respects the result of the referendum and delivers a principled and practical result,” he argued.

The EU is yet to make its ruling on the May plan, and many skeptics believe some of its key provisions will be major bones of contention.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier declared that the British Brexit plan had to comply with EU rules while avoiding extra expenses and bureaucracy.

“We will look carefully at each and any proposal of UK, but these proposals must be workable,” he said.

(Banner image: Flickr)

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