ADVERTISEMENTA senior UK politician says formal talks on the UK’s exit from the EU may not begin on June 19.
Brexit minister David Davis says this is the same day the government is due to set out its policy programme for the new parliament.
Davis said the Brexit talks would begin at some point next week.
The Conservative Party is due to put its policy programme or Queen’s Speech to parliament on June 19
“It’s in the week of next week, basically, is the first discussions,” Davis said in an interview when asked about the practicalities of the negotiations.
“My permanent secretary is actually in Brussels today talking to them about the details. It may not be on the Monday because we have already got the Queen’s Speech that week and I will have to speak in that and so on.”
Single market “not likely to be on the table”
Remaining in the EU’s single market is not likely to be on the table in the upcoming Brexit negotations, a senior lawmaker from UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party has said.
Opposition lawmakers and some in her own party think May does not have a mandate for her plan to remove Britain from the EU’s single market, after she failed to win a parliamentary majority in last week’s national election.
“Everything has to be looked at but we should not get carried away,” said Graham Brady, the Chair of the influential 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs told the media.
He had been asked whether the government’s approach to Brexit needed to be re-examined.
Asked whether the government might seek a deal with the EU that involved controlling immigration whilst remaining a member of the single market, he referred to the experience of May’s predecessor as prime minister, David Cameron.
“David Cameron tried to make that work and nobody was prepared to deal with him on that basis so I’m not sure that would be on the table.”