ZCZC
BFF-24
BRITAIN-EU-BREXIT-POLITICS
Race to lead Britain out of EU pits old foes
LONDON, May 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The race to become Britain’s next premier
heated up on Sunday as Environment Secretary Michael Gove joined an already
crowded field of hopefuls with competing visions of how to finally pull their
divided country out of the EU.
Gove’s bid for the leadership in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit
referendum scuppered the chances of his one-time ally Boris Johnson, who is
also running this time around and is seen as the current favourite.
Whoever is selected in the contest, which is expected to finish in July,
will face increasingly frustrated European leaders who say they have made
their final offer on Brexit after long and acrimonious talks.
May is bowing out with her legacy in tatters and the country in agony over
what to do about the voters’ decision to abandon the European project after
more than four decades.
The markets view the risk of Britain crashing out of the EU bloc when the
twice-delayed departure date arrives on October 31 as uncomfortably high.
Their main concern is that some of the current frontrunners to head May’s
Conservative Party say they will get Brexit done at any cost.
“We will leave the EU on October 31, deal or no deal,” former foreign
minister Boris Johnson said Friday in Switzerland.
– Prefer a deal –
Johnson’s main challenges will come from former Brexit secretary Dominic
Raab, who is viewed as an even more committed eurosceptic, as well as Foreign
Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Gove.
A total of eight MPs have so far declared.
Raab and Hunt announced their candidacies in the Sunday papers.
Raab wrote in The Mail on Sunday that “I would prefer that we leave with a
deal”.
But “we will not be taken seriously in Brussels unless we are clear that we
will walk away on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, if the EU doesn’t
budge,” Raab stressed.
Hunt had campaigned against Brexit in 2016 but has since reversed his
stance.
“We can never take no-deal off the table but the best way of avoiding it is
to make sure you have someone who is capable of negotiating a deal,” he told
The Sunday Times.
Gove was to announce his intention to run at a literary festival later on
Sunday, the BBC reported, positioning himself as a unity candidate able to
heal his party.
Former House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, whose resignation on
Thursday pushed May towards stepping down, also confirmed she will run.
– Rise of Brexit Party –
The contest is being held against the backdrop of European Parliament
elections that the new Brexit Party of the anti-EU populist Nigel Farage is
expected to win with about a third of the vote.
Polls indicate that the Conservatives will be punished for their bickering
over Brexit and could finish as low as fifth — their worst result in a
national election.
The candidates are also mindful of a party revolt over May’s fateful
decision to court the pro-EU opposition with the promise of a second Brexit
referendum.
The concession last week was designed to help ram her withdrawal agreement
through parliament on the fourth attempt.
But it won her no converts and sparked a party coup attempt that forced May
to walk away before she was pushed out.
– Dark horses –
Parliamentary party members will begin whittling down the field of
contenders to a final two from June 10.
The finalists will then be put to a postal ballot of around 100,000 party
members in July.
The field grew further on Saturday when Health Secretary Matt Hancock
entered the race with a promise to take a more moderate approach.
Leaving the European Union without an agreement is “not an active policy
choice that is available to the next prime minister,” Hancock told Sky News.
Hancock is viewed as one of the dark horses who might make it through a
crowded field of more than a dozen names.
International Development Secretary Rory Stewart is also positioning
himself as a more consensus-seeking alternative to Johnson.
“It now seems that (Johnson) is coming out for a no-deal Brexit,” Stewart
told BBC radio.
“I think it would be a huge mistake. Damaging, unnecessary, and I think
also dishonest.”
Yet neither Hancock nor Stewart would say if they would push ahead with
May’s current agreement or try to secure added concessions from Brussels.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1259 hrs