She is spoken of as the next "Iron Lady" in the Mold of Margaret Thatcher a previous Prime Minister of England if she is elected Prime Minister or chosen as Prime Minister.
begin quote from:
The row erupted as Boris Johnson ... "unwise" to fully guarantee that EU citizens could stay in the UK without the 1.2 million Britons living in EU countries receiving the same assurances. Tory MP Anne Main, who backed Brexit, said Mrs …
May defends stance on EU nationals living in the UK
Home Secretary Theresa May has
defended her insistence that the status of EU nationals living in the UK
must be part of the Brexit negotiations after a furious backlash from
Tory MPs.
Conservative MPs lined up in the Commons
to condemn her comments, accusing Mrs May - seen as the frontrunner in
the race to succeed David Cameron - of a "catastrophic error of
judgment".
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has backed Home Secretary Theresa May's bid to be Conservative leader
But appearing before Conservative MPs at a
hustings for the leadership contenders, she took on the issue head-on
insisting the Government had to be able to defend the position of
British nationals living in the EU.
The row erupted as Boris Johnson
gave his backing to Energy Minister and fellow Leave campaigner Andrea
Leadsom in the leadership race.
The former London mayor - who saw his own
leadership hopes dashed following a devastating personal attack by
Michael Gove, the other lead figure in Vote Leave - pointedly praised
Mrs Leadsom as "level-headed, kind (and) trustworthy".
"Andrea
Leadsom offers the zap, the drive, and the determination essential for
the next leader of this country," he said in a statement.
Theresa May is being backed by Philip Hammond
With MPs set to cast their votes on Tuesday
in the first round of balloting, a poll by the ConservativeHome website
of 1,214 party members put Mrs Leadsom narrowly ahead with 38%, one
point ahead of Mrs May on 37%.
The Home
Secretary used her hustings address to argue that the Government could
not afford to "give away" its negotiating position when it came to the
status of British ex-pats in the EU.
Earlier in the Commons, Immigration Minister James Brokenshire faced an onslaught from furious Conservative MPs as he denied the Government was treating EU nationals in the UK as a "bargaining chip".
Replying to an urgent question, he said it would be "unwise" to fully guarantee that EU citizens could stay in the UK without the 1.2 million Britons living in EU countries receiving the same assurances.
Tory MP Anne Main, who backed Brexit, said Mrs May should not have questioned the right of EU nationals already in the UK to remain.
"This has been raised by the Home
Secretary and it is a catastrophic error of judgment for someone who
wishes to lead this country to even suggest those people who are here
legally, working with families and settled, should be even part of the
negotiations," she said.
"(She) has made a real big error of judgment and that message needs to go back to the Home Secretary today."
The
chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee Andrew Tyrie said that delay
was not a "realistic option" and ministers should "just get on" and
confirm the status of EU nationals.
"Protecting
their rights is the only ethical position that can be taken and what's
more, the longer the uncertainty about this question persists the
greater the risk of the economic downturn and economic consequences," he said.
Sarah
Wollaston, the Tory MP who chairs the Health Select Committee,
expressed concern about the position of the 55,000 NHS workers qualified
elsewhere in the EU along with 80,000 members of the care sector.
"They need security not just now
but in the long term because the workforce crisis is one of the biggest
challenges facing the NHS," she said.
Mr
Brokenshire stressed there would be "no immediate" change in the status
of EU citizens living in the UK and the Brexit negotiations would
reflect the "immense contribution" they made to country.
However
it was also the duty of the Government to secure the interests of the
1.2 million British citizens living and working elsewhere in the EU.
"It has been suggested the Government could now fully guarantee EU nationals living in the UK the right to stay," he said.
"This
would be unwise without a parallel assurance from European governments
regarding British nationals living in their countries.
"Such a step might also have the unintended consequence of prompting EU immigration to the UK."
Mrs
May goes into the first round of voting with a clear lead among MPs but
the contest will be decided by grassroots members throughout the
country.
She is joined on the ballot paper
by Mrs Leadsom, Mr Gove, Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb and
former defence secretary Liam Fox.
The
candidate who finishes last will be eliminated and others may choose to
drop out if they feel they have no chance of succeeding.
Further
votes of MPs will be held - with the next due on Thursday - until the
candidates are whittled down to a shortlist of two who will go forward
into the final postal ballot of the entire party membership.
A
YouGov poll of The Times of 994 Conservative Party members suggested
that if it came to a final round run-off between Mrs May and Mrs
Leadsom, the Home Secretary would win by 63% to 31%.
No comments:
Post a Comment