Non, nee, nein to Brexit delay: Macron leads EU leaders in slapping down Tusk’s calls for a 12-month ‘flextension’ for the UK as Dutch PM and German minister say May needs to answer ‘key questions’ or face a No Deal
Jeremy Hunt pictured with Amal Clooney today
Emmanuel Macron is leading European efforts to stop Britain from getting any new delay to Brexit without a ‘clear and credible’ plan for leaving, saying we should otherwise be left to quit ‘in a disorderly manner’.
Paris today attacked both Theresa May’s plea to postpone leaving until June 30 and a separate plan from European Council president Donald Tusk to keep us in the trade bloc for a year.
A French diplomatic source said Mr Tusk’s idea for a ‘flextension’ until March 29 2020 was ‘a clumsy trial balloon’ ahead of an emergency summit next Wednesday.
And European affairs minister Amélie de Montchalin warned that Theresa May’s desire for a short extension of Article 50 with a break mechanism to leave sooner if a Withdrawal Agreement passed through Parliament was not likely to succeed.ADVERTISING
‘The European council took a clear decision on 21 March … Another extension requires the UK to put forward a plan with clear and credible political backing,’ she told the Guardian.
‘The council would then define the necessary conditions attached to that extension, she said.
‘In the absence of such a plan, we would have to acknowledge that the UK chose to leave the EU in a disorderly manner.’
The French intransigence came as senior Dutch and German politicians also questioned Mrs may’s request for a delay to June – after a similar request was rejected out at the last summit in March and two shorter ones imposed.
Dutch premier Mark Rutte said May’s letter seeking the extension ‘raises many questions’ and there will have to be ‘intense discussions’ ahead of a crucial summit of European leaders next Wednesday that will decide on the issue.
‘The plan was that the British would explain what they wanted from the EU,’ Rutte told a weekly press conference.
‘A letter was sent today which, as far as I am concerned, doesn’t answer this request (from the EU for more information). I hope it will be possible to give the answers to these questions.’
Rutte – who has been one of the most outspoken EU leaders on Brexit as his country faces the risk of an economic shock if Britain leaves without a deal – said the letter had ‘no full plan, there was only part of a plan.’
‘We hope London will provide more clarity before Wednesday,’
German foreign minister Heiki Mass added that ‘many questions’ remained about Mrs May’s plan.
The hardline continental approach to next week’s summit came as meetings between the Tories and Labour to try to find a Brexit compromise appeared to have stalled tonight.
After a third day of talks Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘So far, the Government isn’t proposing any changes to the deal.’
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Emmanuel Macron (pictured today, second from right) believes it is ‘premature’ to assume they will grant Britain another extension to the Brexit negotiation period
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Theresa May will write to EU Council President Donald Tusk to request an extension to Article 50 that will delay the UK’s departure beyond April 12 – but Mr Tusk will insist in it being a year-long delay into 2020
One of Jeremy Corbyn’s senior aides today joked that three days of Brexit talks with the Tories had only produced a single piece of paper – as Jeremy Hunt warned Britain would have ‘no choice’ but to accept a long Brexit delay if Labour won’t do a deal.
Brexiteers have pledged to ‘go nuclear’ and accused Theresa May of ‘abandoning’ her party – and leave voters – after she wrote to the EU begging them to extend Article 50 until June 30.
There is also fury that she promised Brussels that British taxpayers would stump up £108million to hold European elections in late May if she fails to make a deal with Jeremy Corbyn by then.
Senior Labour and Conservative MPs are meeting for the third day in a row to thrash out a Brexit deal with a customs union and a second referendum being discussed as a compromise.
But ominously Labour’s chief whip Nick Brown described the outcome of the crunch talks had produced ‘a piece of paper’ – but refused to say what the A4 sheet contained.
Mr Corbyn also admitted that talks with the Prime Minister could drag on after admitting he had ‘no issue’ with Britain taking part in the European elections.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said today there ‘no choice’ but to accept a long extension if a way through cannot be found.
He told the BBC: ‘It’s obviously not optimal to have any extension at all and we have a plan to leave the EU and deliver on the referendum result which we put before Parliament a number of times.
‘We still hope to leave the EU in the next couple of months, that’s our ambition, we don’t have a majority in Parliament and that means that we have to have these discussions with Jeremy Corbyn to see if there is enough common ground to do that.’
Asked if he could accept a long extension, Mr Hunt said: ‘If we can’t find a way through with Parliament then we have no choice’.
