#david davis

Yes, it’s the first day of the long anticipated Brexit negotiations and the first in our series of Brexit related posts. First days are always tricky. Both parties sizing the other up, looking for an angle to put their team ahead - so how did everyone get on?

Representing the UK is David Davis, veteran MP for the Conservative party and May’s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. His approach? Well, no one reallyknows. It looks like we’re in for a ‘hard’ Brexit, with Davis opening the discussion with talk of leaving the customs union and the single market - to the universal agreement of the EU team. When it comes to borders, movement and human rights? No word yet.

What we do know is that UK’ first aim is to build the Brexit schedule on theirterms, not the EU’s. The UK went into today’s talks hoping to get permission to discuss trade agreements with various EU countries at the same time as discussing the possible ‘divorce bill’ they might or might not owe. This is the big power play of the day - whoever gets their way gets the upper hand going forward.

And the winner is?

On the first day of negotiations, the winner was the EU by a landslide. Chief negotiator for the EU, Michael Barnier, stated that the UK, as the leaving party, were not in a position to determine the timetable. 

Compounding the strategic loss, the Conservative government has also suggested it will U-turn on its stance not to guarantee the right to remain of EU citizens currently in the UK. Theresa May herself is expected to fly out to Brussels over the next few days to unveil the reversal. 

The rights of EU citizens is something many opponents to the Tories promised in party manifestos leading into GE2017, particularly Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. Maybe we’re seeing the first signs of the impact of May’s hung parliament.

And if things didn’t look like they could get any worse for Davis and the UK, the issue of the Irish border just became a whole lot more complicated. Negotiations are now expected to take a lot longer than the UK team predicted. How this news will affect the DUP’s deal with the Conservatives is yet to be seen.

Join us tomorrow for another edition of The Brex-Files

Sources:

• The Guardian
  
• BBC News
• The Telegraph