Uri Geller vows to stop Brexit telepathically

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Uri Geller vows to stop Brexit telepathically

2019-03-23 20:04 Last Updated At：20:04

In an open letter to Theresa May, the illusionist said: ‘I will not allow you to lead Britain into Brexit.’

Illusionist Uri Geller has told Theresa May he will “not allow” her to lead Britain out of the European Union.

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the Israeli-British TV personality said he felt “psychically and very strongly” that most Britons were anti-Brexit and vowed to stop the process “telepathically”.

He wrote: “I feel psychically and very strongly that most British people do not want Brexit.

“I love you very much but I will not allow you to lead Britain into Brexit.

“As much as I admire you, I will stop you telepathically from doing this – and believe me I am capable of executing it.

“Before I take this drastic course of action, I appeal to you to stop the process immediately while you still have a chance.”

Geller, who is currently in Israel, used to live in Sonning, which lies in Mrs May’s Maidenhead constituency.

In his letter, he said he had known the now-PM for 21 years and that she had visited his home.

He added: “Three years before you became Prime Minister, I predicted your victory when I showed you Winston Churchill’s spoon on my Cadillac, which I asked you to touch.”

He also claimed he is using the power of his mind to ensure that “Jeremy Corbyn never gets the keys to Number 10 Downing Street”.

“I will ensure that they bend out of all proportion to ensure that he never takes up residence there,” he wrote.

Geller rose to prominence in the 1970s with an act based around his apparent psychic powers and telepathy skills, which were even tested by the CIA.

He is perhaps best known for his trademark spoon-bending trick.

After an extension was agreed by EU leaders on Thursday, the UK is due to leave the union on May 22 if Mrs May can get MPs to back her withdrawal deal.

The UK and the EU hail a new chapter as they sign fresh deals 5 years after Brexit

LONDON (AP) — Britain and the European Union hailed a new chapter in their relationship Monday after sealing fresh agreements on defense cooperation and easing trade flows at their first formal summit since Brexit.

Five years after the U.K. left the EU, ties were growing closer again as Prime Minister Keir Starmer met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior EU officials in London for talks.

The deals will slash red tape, grow the British economy and reset relations with the 27-nation trade bloc, Starmer said, while von der Leyen called the talks a “historic moment” that benefits both sides.

“Britain is back on the world stage,” Starmer told reporters. “This deal is a win-win.”

He hailed Monday’s agreements — the third package of trade deals struck by his government in as many weeks following accords with the U.S. and India — as “good for jobs, good for bills and good for our borders.”

But Britain's opposition parties slammed the deals as backtracking on Brexit and “surrendering” anew to the EU. “We’re becoming a rule-taker from Brussels once again," Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said.

Here are the main takeaways from the summit:

Officials said they will remove some routine border checks on animal and plant products and align with EU regulations, which will reduce costs on food imports and exports and make it easier for goods to flow freely across borders.

Businesses have complained about trucks waiting for hours at borders with fresh food that cannot be exported to the EU because of laborious post-Brexit certifications.

The changes will mean the U.K. can sell products like raw British burgers, sausages and seafood to the EU again, officials said. The benefits will apply also to movements between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, where post-Brexit customs checks have been a thorny issue for years.

While the EU is the U.K.’s largest trading partner, the government said the U.K. has been hit with a 21% drop in exports since Brexit because of more onerous paperwork and other non-tariff barriers.

A new security and defense partnership will pave the way for the U.K. defense industry to access a new EU loan program worth 150 billion euros ($170 billion.) That will allow Britain to secure cheap loans backed by the EU budget to buy military equipment, in part to help Ukraine defend itself.

The EU has said that the loan program will help boost the readiness of European defense as well as enable more coordinated support for Ukraine.

The deal included a 12-year extension of an agreement allowing EU fishing vessels to operate in U.K. waters until 2038, which angered U.K. fishermen and their supporters.

While economically minor, fishing has long been a sticking point and symbolically important issue for the U.K. and EU member states such as France. Disputes over the issue nearly derailed a Brexit deal back in 2020.

Elspeth Macdonald, head of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, called the agreement a “horror show for Scottish fishermen” that was granted in order to secure other objectives. Scottish First Minister John Swinney said the deal was “the direct opposite of what was promised by Brexit."

Post-Brexit visa restrictions have hobbled cross-border activities for professionals such as bankers or lawyers, as well as academic and cultural exchanges, including touring bands.

The U.K. and EU said they agreed to co-operate on a youth mobility plan that’s expected to allow young Britons and Europeans to live and work temporarily in each other’s territory, though no details were provided.

British officials insisted that numbers would be capped and stays would be time-limited.

The free movement of people remains a politically touchy issue in the U.K., with the youth mobility plan seen by some Brexiteers as inching back toward completely free movement for EU nationals to move to the U.K. The U.K. has similar youth mobility arrangements with countries including Australia and Canada.

British passport holders will be able to use e-gates at more European airports as part of the deal.

Since Brexit, many British travelers cannot use automated gates when they arrive at EU airports. The new measure will end “the dreaded queues at border control," officials said.

Britain's opposition parties have criticized Starmer's bid to reset relations with the EU. The pro-Brexit and anti-immigration Reform U.K. party, which recently won big in local elections, and the Conservatives have called the trade-offs in the deals a betrayal of Brexit.

Starmer is "taking us backwards. We left the European Union. That was settled, we drew a line under that,” said Badenoch, the Conservative leader. “This deal is taking us to the past and that is why we call it surrender.”

Starmer stressed that he did not violate his “red lines”: The U.K. won’t rejoin the EU’s frictionless single market and customs union, and will not agree to the free movement of people between the U.K. and the EU.

David Henig, a U.K. trade policy expert at the European Centre for International Political Economy, suggested that while some will continue to argue against agreeing to EU regulations, most Britons likely believe it's time to move forward.

“Simply following EU rules in some areas is going to be controversial to those who thought that Brexit means casting off all influence from the EU entirely,” he said. “That wasn’t realistic for a trading nation like the UK., where 50% of our trade is with the EU.”

Pan Pylas and Jill Lawless in London and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed reporting.