UK's May warns deal with opposition only way to secure Brexit

LONDON--Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday defended her decision to turn to Britain's main opposition to get her EU divorce deal approved, warning without cross-party consensus Brexit could "slip through our fingers".

The beleaguered leader opened talks this week with the Labour Party in a bid to break months of stubborn opposition in parliament to the withdrawal agreement she struck with European leaders last year.

MPs have rejected three times her deal finalized with the bloc last November to end 46 years of membership.

May's overtures to Labour came ahead of an EU summit on Wednesday where she must secure another Brexit extension, until June 30, to prevent Britain crashing out the bloc at the end of next week with no accord.

The country's original March 29 departure date was delayed to April 12 last month.

"We must deliver Brexit and to do so we must agree a deal," May said in a statement released by Downing Street, adding the two main parties agreed on major aspects of Brexit. 

"That is the basis for a compromise that can win a majority in parliament and winning that majority is the only way to deliver Brexit.

"The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all. It would mean letting the Brexit the British people voted for slip through our fingers."

However after several days of negotiations with Labour, its leader Jeremy Corbyn complained he had not "noticed any great change in the government's position so far".

"I'm waiting to see the red lines move," he added.

Meanwhile EU members, who must give unanimous backing to any further Brexit delay, are growing increasingly impatient at the dysfunction in Westminster. 

They could offer just a shorter postponement -- or a longer period of up to a year.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters at a G7 meeting in France on Saturday that it was time for the Brexit crisis to end.

"The British authorities and the British parliament need to understand that (the EU) is not going to be able to constantly exhaust itself with the ups and downs of domestic British politics," he said.

However Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar cautioned it was "extremely unlikely" a member would veto another extension, while revealing he now favored a lengthy delay.

'RESTORE NATIONAL IDENTITY' 

Despite the continued uncertainty over Brexit, it emerged on Saturday that the British government has begun issuing passports with the words "European Union" removed from the front cover. 

The interior ministry said a longstanding decision to start introducing the travel documents without reference to the bloc had gone ahead from March 30.

But it confirmed that some newly issued passports will still bear the bloc's name due to an attempt to save public money by using up "leftover stock". 

British passports had already become ensnared in the country's Brexit divisions.

The government in 2017 announced that it would return to traditional blue passports "to restore national identity", pleasing Brexiteers but drawing scorn from Remainers.

The travel documents had dark blue covers from 1921, but Britain switched to burgundy from 1988, in common with other members of the-then European Community.

The new production contract is to begin in October 2019, with passports currently being issued in the burgundy colour.

'LISTEN TO SUGGESTIONS' 

Whether Britain will have left the bloc by then is uncertain.

Even those of May's Conservative colleagues who back her deal have denounced any outreach to Labour, while the most hardline Brexiteers remain implacably opposed to her deal.

Reports in Britain's Sunday newspapers said Tory MPs would try to oust May if Britain had to contest European Parliament elections in late May as part of a lengthy Brexit delay.

But Finance Minister Philip Hammond, who backed Remain in Britain's 2016 referendum and is seen as favoring as soft a Brexit as possible, urged his divided party to show flexibility.

"We should be open to listen to suggestions that others have made and some people in the Labour Party are making other suggestions," he said.

Labour is pushing for a much closer post-Brexit alliance with the EU, including participation in a customs union.

May has previously dismissed the idea because it bars Britain from striking its own trade deals with global giants such as China and the United States.

But the opposition party is also facing internal division on the issue.

Eighty Labour MPs wrote to Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday urging him to secure a guarantee of a second referendum in any Brexit deal he reaches with May.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UK to have driverless cars by 2021: govt

LONDON - British finance minister Philip Hammond is to announce £75 million ($99 million, 84 million euros) funding for Artificial Intelligence and plans to put driverless cars on UK roads by 2021, in his budget speech on Wednesday.

Hammond will announce regulation changes to allow Britain's driverless car industry, which the government estimates will be worth £28 billion by 2035, to get cars on the road within as little as three yeas, according to extracts of the budget released by his office on Sunday.

The minister, who is under a pressure to deliver an eye-catching budget following Brexit spats with cabinet colleagues, will also announce a £400 million fund for companies hoping to roll out electric-car charge points across the country.

People hoping to buy a battery-electric vehicle will also be able to access funding as Britain attempts to move towards zero-emission transport.

With a focus on tech industries, the government is also planning to spend £75 million supporting companies developing AI and £160 million in developing 5G technology, which it believes will be necessary for the mass rollout of driverless cars.

However, the Conservative minister is likely to be judged more on his social spending policies, particularly on his housing policy in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster that killed 71 people.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Our economy is not broken': UK finance minister defends capitalism

MANCHESTER, England - British finance minister Philip Hammond will defend his Conservative Party's management of the economy on Monday, seeking to stave off rising support for the opposition Labour Party's vision of a more centrally-controlled state.

Hammond is due to speak at the annual Conservative conference - seen as a chance for Prime Minister Theresa May's government to repair relations with the party's grassroots after a damaging botched election in June.


Divided over Brexit from activist level right up to cabinet ministers, and losing public support to a resurgent Labour led by socialist Jeremy Corbyn, May is leading a fragile minority government.

Hammond, finance minister for the center-right party since July 2016, will talk up the merits of a free-market economy.

"Our economy is not broken: it is fundamentally strong," he will say according to advance extracts of his speech.

"The market economy frees people and businesses, encourages them to create, take risks, give ideas a go because they can see the results and benefit from their success."

That view has been challenged by Labour, who last week at their own party conference fleshed out plans for wide scale nationalization, higher government spending, and a more hands-on approach to the banking sector.

Hammond's words echo those of May, who last week issued her own defense of capitalism - a sign of growing concern about the threat Labour poses to the pro-business orthodoxy which has underpinned British economic policy since Margaret Thatcher's reforms in the 1980s.

"As this model comes under renewed assault, we must not be afraid to defend it," he will say.

"While no one suggests a market economy is perfect, it is the best system yet designed for making people steadily better off over time and underpinning strong and sustainable public services for everyone."

But, Hammond's arguments come after 7 years of spending cuts that has tested the patience of the British public and failed to erase a deficit or bring down high levels of national debt.

With Brexit on the horizon, a slowing economy and the Bank of England hinting that interest rates could rise, May's government has little fiscal room for manoeuvre.

Britain's economy grew 0.3 percent in the second quarter after 0.2 percent in the first -- adding up to the slowest growth for any major advanced economy since the start of 2017, according to official statistics.

Last month rating agency Moody's downgraded Britain's credit rating, saying the government's plans to bring down its debt load had been knocked off course and Brexit would weigh on the economy.

The Conservatives will pledge 400 million pounds ($535.00 million) of additional road and rail spending, but Labour said the plans did not go far enough.

"Hammond just wants to continue with the seven years of Tory economic failure that has seen the level of investment in our country fall behind many of our international competitors," Labour's finance policy chief John McDonnell said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com