Brexit Strategies to Decide Race to Be Next U.K. Prime Minister
- Tory candidates disagree on timing and targets for EU talks
- Leadsom joins May, Crabb, Gove and Fox bidding for leadership
Theresa May, U.K. home secretary, departs a news conference to announce her Conservative party leadership bid in London, U.K., on Thursday, June 30, 2016. May, who backed the Remain campaign, will pledge to put a pro-Brexit minister in charge of the negotiations, and plans to say that the process will not be “brief or straightforward”.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThe race to succeed David Cameron as U.K. prime minister effectively became a proxy for the broader battle over how to manage withdrawal from the European Union, with Conservative Party candidates setting out their positions on what can be achieved and how fast.
Pitches from all five candidates have focused on when Britain should trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty -- the formal start of two years of negotiations with the EU -- and what level of single-market access Britain should seek, as well as how much control it will have on migration and the fate of citizens of other EU countries who are already in the U.K. They have to appeal to party lawmakers and activists, many of whom want a full and rapid departure from the EU, while avoiding too many promises they’ll struggle to keep.