Tag Archives: UK

‘Why are you here?’ Juncker asks Brexit lawmakers

EC President Juncker welcomes Farage, the leader of the UKIP, prior to a plenary session at the European Parliament on the outcome of the "Brexit" in Brussels

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker asked lawmakers of Britain’s anti-EU UKIP on Tuesday why they had attended a European Parliament session to discuss the consequences of the British vote to leave the bloc.

“We must respect British democracy and the way it has expressed its view,” Juncker said in a speech to parliament, words that were greeted by rare applause from the UKIP members present.

“That’s the last time you are applauding here… and to some extent I’m really surprised you are here. You are fighting for the exit. The British people voted in favor of the exit. Why are you here?” Juncker continued, breaking from his speech text.

Juncker spoke from a desk next to that of UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who followed the largely French and German speech with headphones and with a British flag planted in front of him.

Before the session began, Farage had gone over to speak to Juncker. Both men appeared relaxed and as Farage made to leave, Juncker pulled him close and gave him an air-kiss on the cheek.

Juncker said he would make no apology for being “sad” at the result of the British vote – “I am not a robot,” he said, “I am not a gray bureaucrat.”

He urged Britain to explain quickly what it wanted from the EU in terms of a new relationship but insisted he had told his staff to engage in no preliminary talks with British officials until London engages the two-year mechanism for leaving the EU.

“No notification, no negotiation,” he said.

On a rare personal note, the 61-year-old former Luxembourg prime minister, struck out at critics, notably in the German press but also among east European governments, who have called on him to stand down following the Brexit vote.

“I am neither tired or sick, as the German papers say,” he said. “I will fight to my last breath for a united Europe.”

(Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

UK would lose at least half million jobs if vote to leave EU

A British Union flag flutters in front of one of the clock faces of the 'Big Ben' clocktower of The Houses of Parliament in central London

EASTLEIGH, England (Reuters) – Britain would lose at least half a million jobs within two years of a vote to leave the European Union and a fall in the value of the pound would push up inflation sharply, finance minister George Osborne said on Monday.

With a month to go until Britain holds its European Union membership referendum, Osborne said workers’ earnings, when adjusted for inflation, would be almost 3 percent lower in two years’ time, equivalent to a pay cut worth almost 800 pounds a year for someone working full time on the average wage.

Osborne was speaking as the finance ministry published a new report on the short-term implications of an “Out” vote.

(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Kate Holton)

Possible British exit from the EU

Wales Stronger in Europe supporters prepare to give out free shopping bags and leaflets in Bute Park, Cardiff, South Wales

By Kylie MacLellan

CAERPHILLY, Wales (Reuters) – In the shadow of Caerphilly’s 13th Century castle, a handful of activists have been handing out leaflets to Saturday shoppers for several weeks to drum up support for a British exit from the European Union (EU).

Elsewhere in the Welsh former mining town, members of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party have also been out campaigning. But the vote they are focused on comes seven weeks before the June 23 EU membership referendum.

Like Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of England, people in Wales will vote in local and regional elections on May 5 — timing that could prove costly for the EU “In” campaign.

Prime Minister David Cameron, whose own Conservative Party is deeply divided on whether or not to stay in the EU, is relying on Labour and other pro-EU political rivals like the Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats to get supporters out to vote to remain in the 28-member bloc.

But with those parties distracted by the May 5 polls, the field is wide open for those in favor of Britain leaving the bloc to push their overlapping political message.

The anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) in particular hopes to fuse growing euroscepticism with local election issues such as the impact of immigration on housing availability to steal many of Labour’s traditional voters.

It’s a situation the leaders of the United Kingdom’s devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had hoped to avoid. Earlier this year, they wrote to Cameron calling on him to hold the referendum later in the year so that it would not conflict with the local election campaign period.

“Cameron went ahead anyway and one of the consequences might be that the remain camp suffers … because people are going to be focusing on other things,” said Roger Scully, Professor of Political Science at Cardiff University.

“They are all focusing on May 5 and then after May 5 they’ll want to rest and so who is going to actually get out and do a lot of the work for remain?”

AVOIDING THE SUBJECT

UKIP candidate and Wales campaign manager Sam Gould, who increased his party’s vote share in Caerphilly by 17 percentage points at last year’s UK-wide election, says rivals are avoiding the subject of the EU.

“The other parties didn’t want to see any crossover whatsoever,” he says, pausing to thrust a campaign leaflet at a passerby. “They know it will help us.”

UKIP has seized on the potential collapse of Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in south Wales, saying the EU did not do enough to stop cheap Chinese imports and the bloc’s rules on state aid have prevented government intervention.

With Tata expected to set a deadline to sell by the end of May, thousands of jobs could be lost just weeks before the EU vote, adding to the “In” camp’s woes.

Hefin David, Labour’s candidate in Caerphilly, said he may get involved in the “In” campaign after elections for the devolved Welsh Assembly, but his focus is on local issues for the time being.

“The Welsh Labour campaign that I am running in Caerphilly is about the bread and butter issues of health, education and social services,” David told Reuters.

“If people want to vote to get out of Europe they can do that on June 23. This is the Assembly campaign and I think they should be separate … I’m not thinking past May 5,” as he warmed his hands on a coffee in a local supermarket cafe.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is also focused on May 5, his first major electoral test since taking over in September with the strong backing of party members but little support among his own lawmakers.

With some of his opponents in Labour looking for a reason to justify a leadership challenge, all eyes are on the May results.

LABOUR STRONGHOLD NO MORE?

There is reason for Labour to be concerned.

Wales, which has a population of around 3 million and is the poorest region in Britain, according to official statistics, is traditionally a Labour stronghold where the party has won every Assembly election since it was created in 1999.

Opinion polls show the party is now running around 14 percentage points below where it was at the same time before the last assembly election in 2011.

Cardiff University’s Scully says a worse result than in 2007, when Labour won 26 out of 60 assembly seats in its poorest performance there so far, would set off alarm bells that could have national implications.

“Some losses have been priced in … 2007 is probably the benchmark. If they are doing worse than that then I think serious questions will be raised and should be raised, both about the leadership in Wales and the leadership of the party across Britain,” he said.

“You could have a situation where Labour will certainly have their worst ever performance in Scotland and they could have their worst ever devolved election in Wales as well, and lose significant ground in the English locals.”

A long-time eurosceptic, Corbyn now backs the party’s position that Britain should remain in the bloc.

But he has come under fire for not doing enough to help the cause, and with polls showing that backers of Cameron’s Conservatives are more likely to be eurosceptics, some supporters fear the “In” politicians are cutting it very fine.

A YouGov poll published on April 11 showed support in Wales for Britain leaving the EU had risen 3 percentage points from a month earlier to 39 percent, while those wanting to remain had dropped by the same amount, to 38 percent.

“If we don’t get the Labour vote out, we are going to lose,” said one person involved in the “Wales Stronger In” campaign.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Sonya Hepinstall)