Potential Brexit Delay Due To Conservatives Not Ready To Negotiate

According to the Sunday Times, there is talk among ministers in parliament for a potential Brexit delay until 2019, which is one year later than scheduled.

The article states that the potential Brexit delay is due to the fact that new Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit and international departments are not going to be ready to put Article 50 into place.

News of this potential Brexit delay is unexpected considering the fact that British citizens voted to leave the European Union (EU) as soon as possible, causing markets crash worldwide and spurring the falling value of the British sterling. The EU itself fired back at the those who initially supported the Brexit, demanding that the process to cut ties with the U.K. take place immediately, which was summed up in one of their recent statements.

“Give effect to this decision of the British people as soon as possible, however painful that process may be.”

Since the vote the EU has reportedly been working to avoid a potential Brexit contagion, which is the reason EU President Martin Schulz refused to delay the process, as the Inquisitr previously reported.

This would prevent other nations in the union from trying to leave as well, which appeared to be the case in France and other surrounding nations after the Brexit vote.

It’s also been reported since the vote that Britain’s right-wing government should not have a chance to negotiate the best deal they can, but the latest news of the potential Brexit delay exactly serves the purpose of allowing them to get the best and most generous trade deal.

By invoking Article 50, the two-year process of leaving the EU begins, according to the Times source. However, Theresa May says that she will not invoke it this year but rather after the start of the new year.

Conservative MP and veteran Eurosceptic John Redwood tells the BBC in an article that the talks of a potential Brexit delay are simply “idle chatter” from people who assume they know the mind of the Prime Minister.

Starting to detect a lot of frustration out there from the 17 million who voted Leave. Government need to get on with it and deliver Brexit.

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) August 14, 2016

UKIP leader Nigel Farage who was mostly responsible for instigating the EU referendum, took to Twitter promising to return to politics if Brexit wasn’t delivered immediately. After the vote, he withdrew from politics, saying that leaving the union was everything he ever wanted to accomplish.

Despite Theresa May’s appointments of David Davis as secretary of state for exiting the EU, Boris Johnson as foreign secretary, and Liam Fox as international trade secretary being made within days of her new position as Prime Minister, the BBC article refers to a “turf war” between Fox and Johnson, the former wanting Johnson to relieve the responsibility of economic diplomacy over to his department in a letter.

“For British trade to flourish there are clear requirements on us: to build the trade framework in markets through trade policy, to establish the conditions for trade and investment through foreign diplomacy, and to reap the harvest of those efforts. The role played by economic diplomacy is crucial to delivery of the objectives I have been set by the prime minister as international trade secretary and I believe it is imperative that this capacity is fully aligned with government resources delivering trade and investment for the UK. If we are to have a rational restructuring I think there is a reasonable proposition to transfer the economic diplomacy function from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office into the Department for International Trade.”

This might also suggest that there are problems among the departments, which could add to the potential Brexit delay. Sorting those issues out could be priority.

There is something to this as the Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry pointed to those issues.

“It is high time that the Tories stopped fighting amongst themselves, started thinking about the good of the country, and focused on clearing up the mess that they have created.”

This was also the feeling of the EU president when he said he did not want a delay on the Brexit deal, explaining that it was the result of fighting among the Tory Party.

Even so, John Redwood has gone on to say that the Brexit could happen immediately and is persistent that there was nothing to the potential Brexit delay.

[Photo by Matt Dunham/AP Images]