‘No negotiation without notification’ has been the EU’s mantra since 24 June last year. Its leaders have been determined that there’ll be no talks before Britain has formally submitted its Article 50 letter, starting the two-year countdown to this country leaving the union. Even now, after Theresa May has set out her Brexit plans with a decent amount of detail, the EU is sticking to this line. Why? Because it wants Britain to be negotiating against the clock.
Despite this, there have been informal conversations over the past six months that have helped forge the Brexit strategy that May set out on Tuesday. EU leaders’ insistence that they won’t compromise on the ‘four freedoms’ means that the government has decided against any cute attempts to reconcile single-market membership with an interpretation of the free movement rules stringent enough to satisfy British voters.
James Forsyth and Liam Halligan join Isabel Hardman to discuss Theresa May’s Brexit plans:
This is sensible.
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