Brexit Talks Begin With May Under Pressure to Get Soft Split

What U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis describes as the „most complicated negotiation of all time“ begins at 11 a.m. in Brussels with Prime Minister Theresa May‘s government already on the backfoot. An attempt to strengthen her hand by calling an election backfired and she‘s run into further domestic strife since, while the 27 other EU members started out with more leverage anyway.

The electoral debacle has put May‘s own position in doubt, fueling a new battle within her Conservative Party over the kind of Brexit the U.K. should seek. Some of her ministers want to refashion her strategy toward protecting trade with Britain‘s biggest market rather than continue to aim for her original goal of winning control of immigration and law-making.