London, Feb 11: Prime Minister Theresa May will attempt to unite her feuding cabinet and convince a sceptical European Union that Britain knows what it wants from Brexit in a series of speeches over the next few weeks.
Britain is hoping to seal a transition deal next month to smooth its exit from the EU, and reach agreement on a long-term trade agreement later this year. However, Brussels said last week a transition deal was not a certainty and that London needed to clarify what it wanted from the EU. May’s government will aim to address that in a series of six speeches by the prime minister and other senior ministers in the next few weeks, which her office dubbed “The Road to Brexit”. “Brexit is a defining moment in the history of our nation,” a source in May’s office said. “As we move along the road to that future, we will set out more detail so people can see how this new relationship will benefit communities in every part of our country.” A BMG poll Sunday for the Independent showed 74 percent of Britons were unclear about May’s overall Brexit strategy.
As well as facing pressure from Brussels, May also needs to unite a cabinet and Conservative party, still deeply split between those who voted for Brexit in 2016 and those who didn‘t, behind a single vision for Britain’s future outside the European Union.
May will host senior ministers at her country residence, Chequers, to try to broker an agreement between the different factions in her cabinet. May’s first speech, to be delivered at a conference in Munich next Saturday, will set out the security relationship Britain wants with the EU. She will deliver another setting out Britain’s future partnership, although a date for that has yet to be confirmed.
Foreign minister Boris Johnson, a leading Brexit advocate, will begin the ‘Road to Brexit’ series with a speech Wednesday, described by May’s office as a “rallying cry to those on both sides of the Brexit debate”.
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