LONDON—“Get on with it.” With those words early in a major speech on Tuesday, Prime Minister Theresa May charted Britain’s course toward a clean break with the European Union (EU) and expressed her fondest hope: that the time for “division and discord” is over.
Her much-anticipated speech outlined what promised to be a hugely complex, drawn-out negotiation, and it defined the broad objectives, but not the details, of British withdrawal.
“The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, and my job is to get the right deal for Britain as we do,” she said.
With the address, May began the jockeying that will lead to a break after more than four decades of tight integration, and define Britain’s relations with its neighbors for decades to come.
She confirmed that Britain is determined to regain control of migration from the EU and rejected the supremacy of the European Court of Justice. That stance is anathema to the EU, which has made the free movement of people—as well as goods, capital and services—one of its bedrock principles and which relies on the court to arbitrate.
“Let me be clear,” May said, acknowledging the differences. “What I am proposing cannot mean remaining in the single market.”
She said she hoped to complete a final deal with the EU by March 2019 and that it would be voted on by both houses of Parliament.
She was not clear about what would happen if Parliament rejected the deal, though some speculated that a rejection would result in the sort of chaotic, “cliff edge” breakup that she and Britain’s bankers and businessmen hope to avoid. May struck a diplomatic note, including an appeal for a new partnership with Continental Europe, but not at all costs.
“We seek a new and equal partnership—between an independent, self-governing, global Britain and our friends and allies in the EU,” May said. “Not partial membership of the European Union, associate membership of the European Union, or anything that leaves us half in, half out.”
And she appealed to Britons, especially to those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to unite behind the government and stop refighting the referendum that backed leaving the bloc, which she had opposed.
The reaction among her opponents in the “remain” camp was predictably harsh and seemed to herald a long and bruising process.
“Theresa May has confirmed Britain is heading for a hard Brexit,” said Tim Farron, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats. “She claimed people voted to leave the single market. They didn’t. She has made the choice to do massive damage to the British economy.”
The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the Tories of turning Britain into “a bargain-basement tax haven,” with their recent threat to slash corporate taxes if a good deal cannot be reached with the EU.
The speech, which provided some degree of substance, gained a warmer reception in the markets, with the pound seeming to stabilize after several jittery days. It rose as much as 1 percent against the dollar during her speech, while stocks on the London exchange fell.
Supporters of a withdrawal have been encouraged, as well, by reports that other countries in the bloc have recognized that they might suffer if there were a complete rupture and they were denied access to London’s large financial services sector. But British businesses remained nervous.
Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, a business lobbying group, welcomed the greater clarity provided by May but worried that “ruling out membership of the single market has reduced options for maintaining a barrier-free trading relationship between the UK and the EU.”
Kallum Pickering, senior Britain economist at Berenberg Bank in London, was more blunt, writing in an analysis that “as we do not expect the EU to compromise its principles, the UK is set to face significant economic consequences from Brexit.”
Few analysts expect the negotiations to go as smoothly or as quickly as May seemed to say in her speech. In recognition of the troubles that may lie ahead, Mark Boleat, the policy chairman for the City of London Corp., the heart of Britain’s financial services industry, urged May to swiftly secure a transition deal that would provide the certainty that businesses crave through the years it would take to fashion a free-trade agreement.
Image credits: Bloomberg