Theresa
May to meet Nicola Sturgeon in week she triggers article 50
Prime
minister to say four nations of the UK are ‘unstoppable force’
during tour ahead of formally commencing EU withdrawal process
Andrew Sparrow
@AndrewSparrow
Sunday 26 March 2017
22.30 BST
The prime minister
will meet Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland on Monday at the start of the
week in which she will trigger Britain’s departure from the EU, and
argue that the four nations of the UK represent an “unstoppable
force”. Theresa May is to hold talks with the first minister for
the first time since Sturgeon demanded a second independence vote in
the wake of the EU referendum and for the last time before triggering
article 50 on Wednesday.
Before the meeting
she will make a speech stressing both her global, outward-looking
ambitions for the country and her faith in the union. The prime
minister will tell staff at the office of the Department for
International Development (DfID) in East Kilbride that their work
shows how Britain is a “kind and generous country” and that when
the nations of the UK work together, “there is no limit to what we
can do”.
May is visiting
Scotland as part of a tour of all four UK nations before she formally
triggers Brexit, starting the two-year EU withdrawal process. The
article 50 letter to the EU announcing the beginning of the
withdrawal will be followed by the publication of a white paper on
Thursday on the “great repeal bill”, one of the key measures that
will give legislative effect to Brexit.
Sturgeon believes
May’s Brexit negotiating stance is so hostile to Scotland’s
interests that she has called for a second independence referendum
and has publicly demanded permission from Westminster to schedule a
vote before the Brexit process is completed.
Downing Street
sources said that May would not budge from her previously stated
position that “now is not the time” for a second vote when the
two leaders meet on Monday.
But in her speech
May will talk up the case for the union, citing DfID’s work as an
example of how the nations of the UK can achieve more together than
apart. “UK Aid is a badge of hope for so many around the world. It
appears on the side of buildings, school books, medical supplies and
food parcels in some of the toughest environments and most
hard-to-reach countries on the planet,” she will say.
“And it says this:
that when this great union of nations – England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland – sets its mind on something and works
together with determination, we are an unstoppable force.”
She will also argue
that Britain’s aid spending shows “we are a big country that will
never let down those in need” and that the UK will continue to play
a global role as it leaves the EU.
The two-year Brexit
negotiations will define her premiership, but the difficulties she
faces were underlined by an article in the Financial Times by Michel
Barnier, the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, saying
that a “no-deal scenario” is a “distinct possibility” and
that this would have “severe consequences” for the UK and for the
rest of the EU.
“Severe disruption
to air transport and long queues at the Channel port of Dover are
just some of the many examples of the negative consequences of
failing to reach a deal,” he said. “Others include the disruption
of supply chains, including the suspension of the delivery of nuclear
material to the UK.” Barnier also claimed that there would have to
be an agreement on what Britain owed the EU early in the process if
the talks were to proceed smoothly.
May received warning
of another potential obstacle on Sunday when Jeremy Corbyn, the
Labour leader, said his party would oppose plans in the “great
repeal bill” to give ministers sweeping powers to rewrite laws with
minimal interference from parliament.
The white paper due
on Thursday will set out how the government intends to repeal the
1972 European Communities Act and transplant laws that have force
because of the UK’s membership of the EU into domestic law. It is
expected that this will involve extensive use of “Henry VIII
powers” – laws allowing ministers to change primary legislation
(government bills) using secondary legislation (orders that go
through parliament with little or no scrutiny).
Speaking on ITV’s
Peston on Sunday, Corbyn said Labour would oppose handing ministers
such extensive powers when the House of Commons voted on the great
repeal bill. “We’re not going to sit there and hand over powers
to this government to override parliament, override democracy and
just set down a series of diktats on what’s going to happen in the
future,” he said. “We’d be failing in our duty as
democratically elected parliamentarians if we did that.”
Corbyn said the fact
that the constitution allowed these sorts of powers to survive was “a
wondrous thing”, but “they’ve got to stop”. “I don’t
think the record of Henry VIII on promoting democracy, inclusion and
participation was a very good one,” he said. “He was all about
essentially dictatorial powers to bypass what was then a very limited
parliamentary power. We need total accountability at every stage of
this whole Brexit negotiation.”
Ministers argue that
they need the powers because leaving the EU will require a vast body
of law to be rewritten and many of the changes that will be made to
primary legislation using Henry VIII powers will be technical.
What happens next
Monday Theresa May
will visit Scotland where she will give a speech to staff at the
Department for International Development office in East Kilbride
before meeting Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister. Keir
Starmer, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, and Paul Nuttall, the Ukip
leader, will both give speeches setting out their parties’
conditions for Brexit.
Tuesday MSPs will
finish their debate on the motion calling for a second independence
referendum. Sturgeon is expected to speak in the debate, and the
motion is almost certain to be passed.
Wednesday The
government will trigger article 50. A letter, about seven or eight
pages long, will be handed to Donald Tusk, the president of the
European council, and May is expected to make a statement to MPs.
Thursday The white
paper on the “great repeal bill” will be published, with David
Davis, the Brexit secretary, likely to give a statement on it in the
Commons.
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