Editorial Board
The Risks of ‘Brexit Means Brexit’
New “negotiating objectives” suggest what the U.K. stands to lose.
On Tuesday, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May set out her fullest account yet of her aims in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. Greater clarity was overdue, and welcome -- but with it comes a clearer understanding of the enormous hazards Britain faces as this process moves forward.
May said, “What I am proposing cannot mean membership of the single market.” That shouldn’t have been surprising, because the European Union (regrettably) won’t budge on the idea that single-market membership requires free movement of people within the EU, and May (rightly) won’t budge on the idea that Brexit requires the U.K. to control its own immigration policy. But understanding this doesn’t make May’s choice any less wrenching.