Brexit: EU considers flexible three-month extension - BBC News

The EU is due to meet on Monday to consider a Brexit extension until 31 January, with an option for the UK to leave earlier if a deal is ratified.

A draft text to be shown to ambassadors from the 27 member countries includes multiple possible dates for Brexit: 30 November, 31 December or 31 January.

There will also be a commitment that the Withdrawal Agreement cannot be renegotiated in future.

Unless the extension is approved, the UK will leave the EU on Thursday.

Under the proposed legal decision to extend the Brexit process, the EU would also retain the right to meet without the UK to consider future business during the extension.

The EU has so far agreed to an extension after Boris Johnson was forced by Parliament to request it, but has not specified the new deadline date.

If EU members approve the request for a three-month extension, Mr Johnson would have to accept it, under the terms of the law passed by MPs to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

Any extension to the Article 50 process is technically flexible, meaning that it can come to an end as soon as a deal is approved by both parties.

But by writing this flexibility into the legal decision to delay Brexit, EU leaders aim to underline their neutrality from the political debate in the UK.

A short delay could be seen as risking a no-deal Brexit by those who support remaining in the EU, while a long delay could be seen by Brexit supporters as attempting to prevent the UK from leaving.

As part of the extension, the EU is expected to say the UK has "an obligation to suggest a candidate" to represent it on the EU Commission.

Mr Johnson has previously said "under no circumstances" will he nominate anyone to take over from Julian King when the new commission takes office on 1 November, arguing that officials need to focus on the UK's future outside the EU.

'Look at all options'

The decision from Brussels is set to come as the UK debates how to use any potential extension to break the Parliamentary deadlock.

The prime minister will put forward a motion calling for a 12 December election on Monday, which needs the support of two-thirds of MPs to succeed.

But the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party want to see a bill introduced that enshrines a 9 December election in law, as long as the Brexit deadline is extended to 31 January.

Conservative MP James Cleverly dismissed this plan as a "gimmick" and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called the move a "stunt".

But a Downing Street source said the government would "look at all options" if its own election motion failed.

Unlike the government plan, the Lib Dem-SNP bill would only require a simple majority to pass.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-50202067

2019-10-27 22:01:39Z
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UK ministers deny plan to weaken workers' rights after Brexit - Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s government denied a newspaper report on Saturday that it will seek to weaken workers’ rights after Britain leaves the European Union, with one minister describing the idea as “completely mad”.

FILE PHOTO: Conservative leadership candidate Boris Johnson poses for a photograph with workers at the Wight Shipyard Company at Venture Quay during a visit to the Isle of Wight, Britain June 27, 2019. Dominic Lipinski/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

The Financial Times published extracts of leaked documents from the government’s Brexit ministry which state that a so-called “level playing field” commitment to the EU “leaves room for interpretation”.

The EU is concerned Britain may try to loosen regulations, including workers’ rights, after it leaves the bloc and says it is likely to impose trade barriers unless rules remain similar, to avoid what it views as unfair competition.

In the shorter term, Britain’s government also needs support from at least some rebel members of the opposition Labour Party to pass Brexit legislation, which has said their votes will hinge on the preservation of workers’ existing protections.

In the Brexit transition deal Prime Minister Boris Johnson has negotiated with Brussels, the political declaration which sets out the framework for trade talks says “the future relationship must ensure open and fair competition, encompassing robust commitments to ensure a level playing field”.

According to the FT, Brexit ministry officials wrote that the UK’s and EU’s “interpretation of these commitments will be very different”, and that the text represented a “much more open starting point for future relationship negotiations”.

Government ministers rejected the FT’s suggestion that this meant British labor standards would diverge significantly from those in the EU.

“This story is not correct. UK will maintain (the) highest standards of workers’ rights and environmental standards when we leave the EU,” business minister Andrea Leadsom said on Twitter in reply to the FT report.

However Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the FT report showed members of parliament would be unwise to trust government promises on workers’ rights.

“These documents confirm our worst fears. Boris Johnson’s Brexit is a blueprint for a deregulated economy, which will see vital rights and protections torn up,” he said.

Junior business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said it was not in the government’s interest to seek to loosen employment rules.

“I think this is completely mad, actually,” he said when asked about the FT report by the BBC. “Nineteen Labour MPs have come with us and voted for a second reading (of Brexit legislation). It would not make any sense at all to dilute workers’ rights.”

Under the Brexit deal negotiated by Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May - which parliament rejected three times - the United Kingdom as a whole would have been bound by some “level playing field” commitments as part of a customs agreement.

According to Johnson’s deal, only Northern Ireland will be obliged to continue to follow rules similar to those in the EU, and the rest of the UK can diverge if it is willing to accept greater barriers to trade with the EU.

Most economists think preserving trade ties with the EU should be a priority after Brexit, and see few obvious gains from significantly different regulation.

Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Alison Williams

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-workers/uk-ministers-deny-plan-to-weaken-workers-rights-after-brexit-idUSKBN1X5081

2019-10-26 10:58:00Z
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Vietnam working with UK police to identify 39 bodies - CNN

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Vietnam working with UK police to identify 39 bodies  CNN
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/10/26/essex-truck-39-deaths-new-arrests-mclean-pkg-vpx.cnn

2019-10-26 08:27:27Z
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Essex lorry deaths: The Vietnamese risking it all to get to the UK - BBC News

An hour's drive inland from the French coast, a dozen Vietnamese men nurse tea over a smoking campfire, as they wait for a phone call from the man they call "the boss". An Afghan man, they say, who opens trailers in the lorry-park nearby and shuts them inside.

Duc paid €30,000 ($33,200; £25,000) for a prepaid journey from Vietnam to London - via Russia, Poland, Germany and France. It was organised, he says, by a Vietnamese contact back home.

"I have some Vietnamese friends in UK, who will help me find jobs when I get there," he told me. "These friends help me get on lorries or container trucks to go across the border."

Security is much less tight in the nearby lorry park than around the ports further north. But few people here have managed to get past the border controls.

We were told there is a two-tier system in operation here; that those who pay more for their passage to Britain don't have to chance their luck in the lorries outside, but use this base as a transit camp before being escorted on the final leg of their journey.

A Vietnamese smuggler, interviewed by a French paper several years ago, reportedly described three levels of package. The top level allowed migrants to ride in the lorry cab and sleep in hotels. The lowest level was nicknamed "air", or more cynically "CO2" - a reference to the lack of air in some trailers.

A local volunteer in the camp told us that they'd seen Vietnamese and British men visiting migrants here in a Mercedes. And that once migrants arrived in the UK, some went to work in cannabis farms, after which all communication stopped.

Duc tells me he needs a job in the UK to pay back the loan for his journey.

"We can do anything," he says, "construction work, nail bars, restaurants or other jobs."

A report by one of France's biggest charities described smugglers telling Vietnamese migrants that refrigerated lorries gave them more chance of avoiding detection, and giving each of them an aluminium bag to put over their heads while passing through scanners at the border.

No one here had heard about the 39 people found dead this week.

This journey is about freedom, one said.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50190199

2019-10-25 23:51:01Z
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Two more arrested after 39 victims found in Essex truck container -- live updates - CNN International

Police officers drive away a lorry, with black plastic visible at the rear, in which 39 bodies were discovered in Essex. BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday said the 39 bodies that were discovered in a refrigerated lorry in Essex have yet to be identified as Chinese at this time.

"The British police expressed that the identity of the victims is still being verified. It is not yet possible to confirm whether they were Chinese nationals," spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

"We hope that the British side will confirm the identity of the victims as soon as possible, find out the truth, and severely punish the criminals involved in the case."

The spokesperson added that consular officials from the Embassy in China are working closely with UK authorities and that British police are "still in the process of verification."

When asked by CNN about the possibility of Chinese citizens being illegally trafficked, the question was rebuffed by the spokesperson.

"Chinese people have gained an unprecedented level of gratefulness, safeness, fulfillment and happiness over the past, over the past seven decades," Hua replied.

"If you look around the globe you will find more and more foreign friends wishing to work, study and holiday in China even more they hope live in China for a long time, so I think this is not an appropriate question for you to raise here."

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https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/essex-truck-bodies-container-dle-intl-gbr/index.html

2019-10-25 12:19:00Z
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Bodies in truck container identified as Chinese nationals: Live updates - CNN International

The driver of a truck that was found with 39 bodies inside in the town of Grays, England, on Wednesday has been identified by a local councillor as Morris Robinson.

Paul Berry, the local councillor for Armagh (the area where Robinson lives in Northern Ireland), told CNN he learned of the arrest after speaking with Robinson’s father.

Berry confirmed to CNN the identity of the driver, saying that he was known locally as “Mo." He said Robinson’s family is “salt of the earth and clearly we need to give them space”.

Earlier Wednesday, Essex Police said a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland remains in custody on suspicion of murder.

“I will not be commenting on the identity of the suspect of this man,” Deputy Chief Constable of Essex Police Pippa Mills said during a news conference. 

Here's a photo of Robinson:

Facebook / Mo Robinson

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https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/essex-bodies-truck-container-dle-intl-gbr/index.html

2019-10-24 12:20:00Z
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UK Won't Deport Lucy Dutton, Girl With British Parents - TIME

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https://time.com/5706776/lucy-dutton-deportation-win/

2019-10-24 09:59:41Z
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