LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday parliament would have every opportunity to debate her government’s plans to leave the European Union, but ruled out letting it vote on triggering the formal Brexit procedure.
May has been under pressure to divulge more of her plans for Britain’s exit from the bloc beyond her catchphrase that “Brexit means Brexit,” but in a lively session of parliament her government said it had little concrete to give away.
Uncertainty over what kind of deal Britain will pursue in some of the most complex talks it has undertaken since World War Two has unsettled investors and markets.
The British currency is particularly sensitive to any suggestion that the country might be heading toward a “hard Brexit,” or a clean break from the EU’s single market of 500 million consumers in order to control immigration.
Sterling, which has lost 18 percent against the dollar since the June Brexit referendum, rallied on reports that parliament would get to vote on May’s deal, but eased slightly after her spokeswoman said there would be no vote on triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. This starts the formal negotiation process, lasting up to two years, until Britain’s departure.
“The idea that parliament somehow wasn’t going to be able to discuss, debate, question ... was frankly completely wrong,” May said when asked by an opposition Labour lawmaker whether parliament would get a vote on the government’s Brexit plan.
“Parliament is going to have every opportunity to debate this issue.”
Increasingly conscious that markets are moving on her words, May was clear that she would be “ambitious” in talks with the other 27 EU members to get what she called the best deal.
“And that will include the maximum possible access to the European market for firms to trade with and operate within,” May told parliament, a statement which helped sterling gain around a quarter of a cent against the dollar.
UNDER PRESSURE
Appointed prime minister shortly after the June 23 vote on EU membership, replacing David Cameron who resigned, May has come under pressure to drop her insistence that she will not give a “running commentary” on the Brexit negotiations.
By refusing to debate her strategy, lawmakers say, May is undermining Britain’s centuries-old parliamentary democracy. May says she does not want to show her hand before the talks.
“How are you going to build a consensus around your approach if you won’t tell this house what your approach is?” Labour Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said. “The mandate on the 23rd of June was not a mandate on the terms (of a Brexit deal).”
Labour demanded Wednesday’s debate and May accepted on condition that it would not undermine her negotiating strategy.
May, a former interior minister, has defended her “prerogative” to trigger the departure without parliamentary approval and her government will defend that position at London’s High Court on Thursday, when a legal challenge led by a pro-EU investment fund manager will begin.
Investors fear that, with three leading Brexit campaigners among her closest advisers, May is taking Britain toward a “hard Brexit.” On Tuesday, several senior bankers said they could start moving staff abroad as early as next year if there was no clarity on access to the single market.
Brexit minister David Davis told parliament the government was not yet in a position to provide details of what it wanted from the talks beyond its “overarching aims.”
He said the talk of “soft” and “hard” Brexit should be avoided because there was “a spectrum” of options for Britain as it negotiated its exit from the bloc that it joined in 1973.
“The overarching aims are these: bringing back control of laws to parliament, bringing back control over decisions of immigration to the UK, maintaining the strong security cooperation that we have with the European Union and establishing the freest possible market in goods and services with the European Union and the rest of the world,” he said.
“We have been pretty clear on the overarching aims, not the detailed aims. We’re not even at the point that that’s possible,” Davis added.
UK’s May says lawmakers can debate Brexit process, no Article 50 vote
UK’s May says lawmakers can debate Brexit process, no Article 50 vote
Pakistan ex-PM Khan, wife appeal graft convictions: lawyer
- Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years and his wife to seven earlier this month
- A special graft court found the pair guilty of ‘corruption and corrupt practices’
Khan was sentenced to 14 years and his wife to seven earlier this month in the latest case to be brought against them.
“We have filed appeals today and in the next few days it will go through clerical processes and then it will be fixed for a hearing,” Khan’s lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry said.
The papers were filed at the Islamabad High Court.
A special graft court found the pair guilty of “corruption and corrupt practices” over a welfare foundation they established together called the Al-Qadir Trust.
Khan, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases which he claims are politically motivated.
Kremlin says it has yet to hear from US about a possible Putin-Trump meeting
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it appeared a “certain amount of time” was needed before a meeting between the two leaders could take place. He said Russia understood that Washington was still interested in organizing such a meeting.
Putin said on Friday that he and Trump should meet to talk about the Ukraine war and energy prices, issues that the US president has highlighted in the first days of his new administration.
India minister pledges to evict ‘illegal’ immigrants from capital
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s closest political ally has pledged to rid the capital of “illegal’ immigrants if his party wins looming elections, in a forceful appeal to his party’s Hindu constituency.
Interior minister Amit Shah said every unlawful migrant from neighboring Bangladesh would be expelled from New Delhi “within two years” if his party succeeded in next month’s provincial polls.
“The current state government is giving space to illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas,” Shah told an audience of several thousand at Sunday’s rally.
“Change the government and we will rid Delhi of all illegals.”
India shares a porous border stretching thousands of kilometers with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and illegal migration from its eastern neighbor has been a hot-button political issue for decades.
There are no reliable estimates of the number of Bangladeshis living illegally in Delhi, a city to which millions have flocked in search of employment from elsewhere in India over recent decades.
Critics of Modi and Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accuse the party of using the issue as a dog whistle against Muslims to galvanize its Hindu-nationalist support base during elections.
Delhi, a sprawling megacity home to more than 30 million people, has been governed for most of the past decade by charismatic chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Kejriwal rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago and his profile has bestowed upon him the mantle of one of the chief rivals to Modi and Shah’s party.
His popularity has been burnished by extensive water and electricity subsidies for the capital’s millions of poorer residents.
But he spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licenses, along with several fellow party leaders.
Kejriwal denies wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch-hunt by Modi’s government, and despite resigning as chief minister last year vowed to return to the office if his party won re-election.
The BJP has led a spirited campaign in its efforts to dislodge Kejriwal’s party ahead of the February 5 vote.
Modi is expected to make a pilgrimage to the ongoing Kumbh Mela, the biggest festival on the Hindu calendar, to bathe in the sacred Ganges river on the day of the Delhi assembly vote.
Results of the election will be published on February 8.
Ukraine’s Zelensky urges action against ‘evil’ on Auschwitz anniversary
- The Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
- Zelensky warned that the memory of the Holocaust is growing weaker
KYIV : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said the world must unite against evil, in comments marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death.
The Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 claiming that the government in Kyiv contained neo-Nazi elements and saying the country must be demilitarized.
Zelensky warned that the memory of the Holocaust is growing weaker and said some countries are still trying to destroy entire nations.
“We must overcome the hatred that gives rise to abuse and murder. We must prevent forgetfulness,” he said, according to a statement from the presidency.
“And it is everyone’s mission to do everything possible to prevent evil from winning,” he added.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that Russia’s invasion “brought back to Ukrainian soil horrors that Europe has not seen since World War II.”
“Jewish communities of Ukraine are also suffering from constant Russian terror, in particular in the cities of Dnipro and Odesa, which have a population of over a million, and other localities,” it added.
The Holocaust decimated the Jewish community in Ukraine, which during World War II was part of the Soviet Union.
It was not the first massacre of Jewish people in Ukraine’s history, which had seen previous anti-Semitic pogroms.
Russia drone barrage sparks fire in western Ukraine
KYIV: A barrage of more than 100 Russian drones sparked a fire at an industrial facility in western Ukraine and damaged residential buildings in other regions, Ukrainian officials said Monday.
The Ukrainian airforce said Moscow had dispatched 104 drones, including attack drones, and that 57 of the unmanned aerial vehicles had been shot down.
Emergency services in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region said the strikes had resulted in two fires at an industrial facility, and that firefighters were working to extinguish one.
They did not specify the type of facility hit but said there were no casualties.
The airforce said there was damage in four Ukrainian regions including Kyiv, where AFP journalists heard drones flying overhead and air defense systems countering the attack.
