London: Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a special cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss her much-anticipated speech on Brexit this week, as critics said divisions in the government could make any new pledges largely symbolic.
May’s government made no immediate comment following the meeting at Downing Street, her London residence, which took place amid are ported split in the cabinet over how to proceed with Brexit.
The BBC quoted an unnamed cabinet minister as saying before the meeting that May plans to make an “open and generous offer” to the remaining 27 EU member states in her speech — to be delivered on Friday in Florence — as she bids to break the deadlock in negotiations on Britain leaving the European Union.
She is expected to propose transitional arrangements for after Brexit takes effect in March 2019 and offer to settle EU demands for Britain’s Brexit “divorce bill.”
But EU leaders fear that a weakened May will not be able to keep the promises she makes, Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour party’s shadow Brexit minister, told The Guardian.
“They want to see real progress, and they want follow-through,”Starmer was quoted as saying. “Not a speech and nothing else.”
The newspaper said he was speaking after meeting “all the major players in the EU’s negotiating team” this week, including Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
— dpa
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