IT'S A STITCH UP: May faces fury of Brexiteers as she 'caves in to EU on ECJ and Ireland'
BREXITEERS today reacted with fury over a proposed agreement between the EU and Britain that they said tramples over Theresa May’s key red lines on the ECJ and Irish border.
Eurosceptics described the climbdown as a “bitter betrayal” even as the PM’s own partners in Government, the DUP, appeared to reject the deal Number 10 and Brussels have thrashed out.
Negotiators for Britain and the EU have drawn up an outline exit agreement containing a number of new compromises, which the two sides had been hoping to sign off and publish this evening.
However, a commitment to continued “regulatory alignment” between the North and South of Ireland designed to break the deadlock has angered the unionist DUP, putting the deal in jeopardy.
Already SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan have pounced upon the compromise to suggest that Scotland and the capital should also get a special deal with the EU.
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We will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/uCBVdfVQTJ
— Arlene Foster (@DUPleader) December 4, 2017
Eurosceptics are also furious about a proposal for ongoing “direct effect” of the ECJ in certain cases involving EU citizens, which was previously a clear red line for the Government.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage raged: “This is complete legal nonsense. It is against everything the British people voted for and and utterly unacceptable. Theresa May has got to go. If we want to leave the EU, she’s got to leave office now.
“If the UK allows the ECJ power over EU citizens in Britain it would mean two laws, two centres of legal recourse and open up inequality before the law within the United Kingdom. It’s outlandish.”
On the Ireland concession, he added: “This is a bitter betrayal of 17.4 million people. It is a concession too far, for it will lead to endless problems in Scotland and it damages the integrity of the United Kingdom.”
“This is a bitter betrayal of 17.4 million people
Tory MP John Redwood said: “We can only only take back control of our laws, money and borders if we leave with no further commitments to EU jurisdiction. We must remind them there's no legal requirement to pay a so called divorce bill.”
Eurosceptic MEP Steven Woolfe said: “The dream of Brexit is fading faster than England winning a world cup penalty shoot out. Only this time we have no goalie, put the ball on the spot and let EU shoot into an empty net.”
And Ukip’s Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten tweeted a picture of Henry VIII with the caption: “The last time England ‘divorced’ itself from Europe we had a leader who knew what he wanted, how to get it, and the guts to see it through.”
Speaking to reporters this afternoon the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, said her party would never accept any compromise with Brussels that differentiates it from the rest of the UK.
She fumed: “Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the UK. We will not accept any kind of regulatory divergence which separates us economically or politically from the rest of the UK.
“The economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom will not be compromised in any way.
"The Republic of Ireland government is trying to unilaterally change the Belfast agreement without our input and without our consent. Of course, we will not stand for that."
Mrs May's official spokesman told a regular Westminster briefing: "The PM has been clear that the UK is leaving the European Union as a whole and the territorial and economic integrity of the United Kingdom will be protected."
