London: As Britian Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to head to China for the upcoming G20, she will first hold a critical cabinet meeting with her top ministers at Chequers — the country retreat home for British Prime Ministers, a media report said.
May intends to reinforce her clear Brexit stance following Britain’s June 23 referendum decision that the country will leave the European Union (EU), Xinhua news agency reported.
Her determination to see through what the British public decided, was likely to dismay supporters of the Remain camp who were still seeking ways of overturning Britain’s retreat from Europe.
May wants to make sure before she departs for Hangzhou that world leaders gathering in Hangzhou were in no doubt about her proclamation that Brexit means Brexit.
The Mail on Sunday described May’s Chequers’ meeting on Wednesday as a “back to school” cabinet meeting during which she was expected to order feuding Brexit Ministers to end any turf wars.
It will be May’s first meeting at her country retreat since she became Prime Minister, with the Mail saying it will mark a sharp escalation in May’s efforts to assure restless Eurosceptics in her Conservative party that she was on track to deliver an early exit from the EU “and will not fob them off with Brexit-lite”.
She would also encourage the three-quarters of cabinet members who campaigned to stay in the EU to identify Brexit opportunities in their own government departments.
May’s trip to China will see her meeting the US President Obama, with commentators saying she was likely to use the opportunity to gauge the appetite for mutually beneficial Britain-US trade relationships in the future.
Former Labour premier Tony Blair and a number of serving politicians say Members of Parliament could use a parliamentary vote to stop Brexit.
A Downing Street source said: “The Prime Minister has been absolutely clear that the British public have voted and now she will get on with delivering Brexit.”
Around 480 of the 650 MPs in the House of Commons campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU at the last election. The upper chamber, the House of Lords, was also to be said overwhelmingly in favour of Britain staying in the EU.
In a speech on the leadership campaign trail a few days ago Labour’s Smith said: “Under my leadership we will vote in Parliament to block any attempt to invoke Article 50 until Theresa May commits to a second referendum or a general election on whatever the EU exit deal emerges at the end of the process.”
–IANS