The time is near. Tomorrow Wednesday U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May will officially trigger article 50 by which Brexit negotiations kick off.
And as the time for EU and United Kingdom negotiators to sit face-to-face and begin weaving a deal for the U.K.’s separation from the European Union, British officials have stepped back from threats that the Brexit will happen, deal or no deal.
In private, U.K. officials — according to unidentified diplomats quoted by The Guardian — recognise the “havoc” that a no-deal-Brexit would cause, and have come to regret the threat to turn the United Kingdom into a deregulated offshore tax haven, implicit in Mrs May’s January speech in January, when she warned that “no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal”.
The sources, the British news outlet added, claim the conciliatory signals from May’s government officials are an attempt to lower tensions as the prime minister readies the article 50 letter for tomorrow Wednesday.
After her January speech, various European Union diplomatic officials warned the British government that May’s threat of a “no deal” seemed to be in line with the rest of what she said, making it more difficult to create a political consensus for a deal in Europe.
Official EU sources have warned that a no deal Brexit would cause havoc in the U.K, where people who have an ideological and political intention of creating chaos. The civil service
British civil servants and ministers have told their EU counterparts not to expect anything substantially new in the article 50 letter, although there may be some clarity as to what extent the U.K. government is willing to countenance a transitional deal or implementation phase.
Stance on Immigration
EU diplomats predicted that the U.K. was likely to change its stance on immigration, hinting that the British realised that strict limits on immigration were a bad idea for British society and the economy.
Diplomats, according to The Guardian, pointed out the number of migrants likely to be seeking entry to the United Kingdom from the European Union is expected to decline since economic growth is picking up in the region and there will be greater competition for labour.