UK Prime Minister Theresa May, confronted with a fight within her Conservative party, wants to get the cabinet ministers to support stricter immigration regulations after the country's departure from the European Union in an effort to enlist the support of Brexiteers and uphold her leadership, local media reported on Thursday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2018) UK Prime Minister Theresa May, confronted with a fight within her Conservative party, wants to get the cabinet ministers to support stricter immigration regulations after the country's departure from the European Union in an effort to enlist the support of Brexiteers and uphold her leadership, local media reported on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the hard-Brexit European Research Group, led by members of parliament Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker, held a meeting during which it had allegedly discussed a possible vote of no confidence in the UK prime minister. Rees-Mogg then clarified that the group wanted May to abandon her Brexit plan, also known as the Chequers deal.
The special meeting of cabinet ministers, which will include a discussion on immigration, is expected to take place on September 24, less than a week before the Tory party conference, at which May plans to announce the tougher immigration rules, The Times newspaper reported.
According to the news outlet, the future package of measures are likely to put an end to the preferential access to the country for EU citizens so that they will have to obtain a visa to enter the United Kingdom just like the citizens of the countries outside the European Union.
The new proposals might also extend employment quotas for skilled and unskilled workers to EU citizens.
On July 6, the UK cabinet met at May's residence in Chequers and reached an agreement which marked, according to the UK government, a "substantial evolution" in the United Kingdom's position in the Brexit talks. The Chequers statement proposed the creation of a free trade area for goods and maintaining a "common rulebook" for all goods, including agricultural ones.
The cabinet's decision to relax Brexit conditions resulted in UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis resigning out of protest against the government's stance.
The United Kingdom is expected to leave the European Union in March 2019.
