World

Senior Tory Donors Want PM May to Show Leadership in Brexit Talks

Prime Minister Theresa May is facing growing pressure from her fellow Conservatives Party members to clarify her position on Brexit, to stand up for the country’s interest in the ongoing divorce talks with Brussels.
Sputnik

John Hall, one of the Conservative Party’s main donors, warns of a crushing defeat the Tories could face in upcoming elections unless the Prime Minister makes clear where she wants to take the country and shows leadership.

“It is up to Theresa now to convince everybody that she can be the leader who can stay. I think that’s the way most people in the party are looking at it. Show us your leadership. This is the time to stand up and show it,” Hall who has donated more  than  half a million  pounds to the Conservative Party since 2007 and helped fund Theresa May’s snap election, said in an interview with the Observer.

UK, EU to Agree on Brexit Transition Deal in 7 Weeks - Prime Minister May
John Hall, who voted for Britain to remain in the EU, also said he would now back May walking away from Brexit negotiations if she believed the EU was trying to “blackmail” Britain.”

He also voiced his concern about the lack of a domestic agenda and called on May to back “capitalism with a social conscience.”

“She’s got to take the bull by the horns and say, ‘this is the road we are going.’  We have to appear stronger. And we have to appear that we are going to make change, because we are not even looking at domestic affairs,” John Hall emphasized.

In January, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, Brexit Secretary David Davis and Business Secretary Greg Clark said that Britain would maintain continuity with EU regulations during the post-Brexit transition period and that Britain’s access to EU markets would continue on current terms from March 2019 for “around two years.”

READ MORE: Brexit Minister 'Surprised' by EU's Claims About Transition Period Uncertainty

London has about a year to hammer out an agreement on future relations with the EU, which will have to be ratified by the EU member nations and the UK Parliament, before Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

The Brexit talks between the UK and the EU, which kicked off on June 19, 2017, are expected to wrap up before the end of March 2019.
In a referendum on June 23, 2016, about 51.9 percent of British voters said "yes" to their country leaving the EU.

Discuss