Theresa May requests Brexit extension to June 30
The UK prime minister said the Westminster impasse was
‘creating uncertainty and doing damage to faith in politics.’
By CHARLIE
COOPER 4/5/19, 10:24 AM CET
Updated 4/5/19, 10:29 AM CET
LONDON — Theresa May requested a further Brexit extension
until June 30 to give the U.K. time to ratify any cross-party deal she is able
to strike in the coming days.
In a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, the
U.K. prime minister said that while it was not in the interests of either the
U.K. or the EU that her country takes part in the European Parliament election
scheduled for 23 to 26 May, she would undertake preparations for the poll as a
“contingency.”
EU27 leaders will meet in Brussels on Wednesday to agree
their response. Unless they agree a further extension, May’s letter
acknowledges, the legal default is that the U.K .will leave the EU at 11 p.m.
on April 12 without a deal.
In the letter May says the Brexit “impasse” in the House of
Commons was “creating uncertainty and doing damage to faith in politics, while
the European Union has a legitimate desire to move to decisions about its own
future.” Her letter accepts the legal obligation to hold the election in the
U.K. if the country is a member of the bloc on May 23.
The prime minister said her talks with Labour Leader Jeremy
Corbyn, as well as a broader “open invitation” to MPs who want to respect the
2016 referendum result showed her government was “determined to bring this
process to a resolution quickly.”
May said that if a Brexit deal were ratified before June 30,
the U.K. should be able to leave the EU sooner.
“The Government will want to agree a timetable for
ratification that allows the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union
before 23 May 2019 and therefore cancel the European Parliament elections, but
will continue to make responsible preparations to hold the elections should
this not prove to be possible,” May said.
U.K. officials say the country could cancel the poll as late
as the day before, if necessary.
Juncker: No Brexit extension if deal not adopted by 12 April
By EUOBSERVER
3. APR, 14:58
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told MEPs
on Wednesday, in a warning to the UK, that if the Brexit withdrawal agreement
was not adopted by 12 April by the House of Commons, no short extension would
be possible, as requested by British prime minister Theresa May on Tuesday.
Juncker again said the EU was ready to discuss a closer relationship with the
UK, if London changed its negotiating red lines.
Theresa May to make written Brexit offer to Jeremy Corbyn
Letter to include proposal to offer MPs vote on second
referendum, source suggests
Rowena Mason and Heather Stewart
Thu 4 Apr 2019 20.28 BST Last modified on Thu 4 Apr 2019
21.20 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/04/theresa-may-to-make-written-brexit-offer-to-jeremy-corbyn
Theresa May is expected to write to Jeremy Corbyn to set out
the government’s offer on Brexit, with negotiations due t
o resume in Downing Street on Friday.
With just five days to go before the prime minister must
travel to Brussels to request a further Brexit delay from EU leaders, little
progress appears to have been made on finding a compromise deal both Labour and
the Conservatives can back.
But after the government delegation reported back to May on
Thursday, officials began drafting a letter setting out a way forward.
One government source suggested that, in accordance with
Labour’s demands, it would include the proposal that a confirmatory referendum
on any Brexit deal be offered to MPs as an option in any vote next week.
After Thursday’s discussions in Downing Street, Corbyn sent
a note to Labour MPs, saying: “Agenda items were customs arrangements, single
market alignment including rights and protections, agencies and programmes,
internal security, legal underpinning to any agreements and confirmatory vote.”
Technical talks lasted four and a half hours, but both sides
emerged cautious about how much progress had been made.
The Guardian understands the Downing Street team of David
Lidington, Steve Barclay, Julian Smith, Greg Clark and Gavin Barwell spent much
of their time explaining the details of the withdrawal agreement, rather than
proposing movement on any of May’s red lines.
Labour’s delegation included Keir Starmer and Rebecca
Long-Bailey. The prime minister’s chief Brexit negotiator, Olly Robbins, was
also present.
Earlier in the week, May had hinted she was open to
compromise on issues such as the customs union, with her attorney general,
Geoffrey Cox, later saying it was something he could live with.
A deal including a customs union would be explosive in the
Conservative party as the majority of Tory MPs oppose such a move.
Hardline Eurosceptic MPs are still furious, with many
plotting moves against the prime minister, despite there being no formal Conservative
party mechanism to move a motion of no confidence in her until December.
One Brexiter MP said there were moves afoot to destabilise
the prime minister including many more letters going to Graham Brady, the chair
of the 1922 Committee, and an orchestrated campaign of letter-writing by
Conservative association chairmen.
Another Conservative MP said there could come a point where
the feeling against May was so strong that it would end in MPs effectively
“storming into Downing Street and hauling her out of it”.
A third Tory MP, Andrew Bridgen, who is holding out against
May’s deal, said: “For the sake of the country and democracy and the party we
have got to find a way to get rid of her. You’ve either got an international
trade policy and a seat at the table or, if you’ve got a customs union, you are
on the menu.”
A cabinet source insisted May’s intention in holding the
talks with Labour was genuine, but acknowledged they would probably end in
another series of parliamentary votes on the options.
An alternative could be for May to extend an offer of formal
talks to Labour MPs who want a Brexit deal. Around 25 Labour MPs wrote to
Corbyn on Thursday urging him to “go the extra step” to secure a better Brexit
deal with the prime minister without the need for a referendum.
The MPs who have signed the letter, many of them from
leave-voting seats, include the former minister Caroline Flint, backbenchers
Sarah Champion and Gareth Snell, and leftwing Eurosceptics such as Dennis
Skinner, Ronnie Campbell and Kevin Barron.
“A second referendum would be exploited by the far right,
damage the trust of many core Labour voters and reduce our chances of winning a
general election,” they said in the letter.
The MPs said Corbyn could achieve many of Labour’s objectives
in the talks, referring to his party conference speech where he said Labour
could support a “sensible deal” with a customs union, no hard border in
Northern Ireland and one that protected jobs, workers’ rights and environmental
standards.
“We believe you are
close to achieving that in the coming days,” the MPs said. “At the general
election we were clear about respecting the 2016 vote and about securing those
Labour goals. Therefore we feel if compromise is necessary to achieve this deal
and avoid fighting the European elections, we should go the extra step to
secure this.”
The group said that the party’s conference policy “does not
require a confirmatory ballot on any deal that meets those conditions”.
However, the Labour leader received an opposing missive from
12 MPs including Corbyn allies and shadow ministers Clive Lewis and Marsha de
Cordova, as well as the former shadow cabinet minister Kate Osamor, which urged
him not to sign up to a deal unless it was subject to a public vote.
The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, also wrote
to frontbench colleagues insisting that a deal not subject to a referendum
would breach Labour’s conference policy and would need to be put to a shadow
cabinet vote.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário