Britain’s government will delay the Queen’s Speech, in which it traditionally spells out its policy plans, because of the upheaval caused by Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure to win a parliamentary majority on June 8, the BBC said on Monday.
The BBC said, the speech had been due to take place on June 19 but would be put back by a few days.
The shock result of the June 8 election has raised big questions about how May will advance with her plan to take Britain out of the European Union.
In a related devlopment, the BBC said that May must convince her Conservative lawmakers on Monday that she should stay as party leader after an election gamble that has plunged British politics into chaos a week before formal talks to leave the European Union begin.
Unable to govern without support after the snap election, she has yet to secure the backing of a eurosceptic Northern Irish party with 10 parliamentary seats.
The outcome of the June 8 vote has also thrown into doubt what Britain would seek from Brexit talks with the EU, complex negotiations which will have profound implications for the world’s fifth largest economy.
May will attend a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Conservative lawmakers on Monday, some of whom have called for her to be ousted.
However, in spite of the anger from some at the shock result, May’s position appears safe, at least for the immediate future.
“I don’t detect any great appetite amongst my colleagues for presenting the public with a massive additional dose of uncertainty by getting involved in a self-indulgent Conservative Party internal election campaign,” Graham Brady, the 1922 committee chairman, told BBC TV.
Brexit minister David Davis said that EU talks might not begin on June 19 as expected as May sets out her new policy program that day.
The negotiations are supposed to conclude by March 2019 when Britain leaves, an ambitious-looking date even before the election debacle cast doubt on what UK strategy would be.
May had planned a clean break from the EU, involving withdrawal from Europe’s single market and customs union but some Conservatives and opponents hope the election shock will lead to a “softer” Brexit, which prioritises close trade links over controlling immigration.
One of those is Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives who helped the party win 12 more seats in contrast to losses elsewhere, one of the few whose personal stature was enhanced by the result.(Reuters/NAN)