LONDON: British government over Brexitahead of a meeting in London on Monday between Theresa May and the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier. The row within the Conservative Party over future customs arrangements comes as European negotiators are looking at how to stop Britain undercut the EU in tax and regulation after Brexit. The EU task force working on new negotiating guidelines has been engaged in a series of consultative meetings with the 27 remaining states in which they made clear the talks would have to be about far more than free trade. Preserving employment rights, environmental standards and co-operation against tax avoidance are all part of a “wide-ranging” EU agenda for talks that EU officials say will be all about maintaining a “level playing field”, in which as much as possible of the status quo rights, obligations and regulatory alignment are safeguarded.
The “depth and breadth” of the UK-EU relationship, the task force argues, necessitates a far more extensive agreement and controls than provisions in agreements with the US, Japan or Canada. It is an explicitly “ambitious” agenda that will infuriate hard Brexiteers on the Tory back benches.
