No deal for May

EUROPEAN Union leaders have expressed dismay and regret after the British parliament rejected a Brexit divorce deal, saying they were stepping up emergency planning and warned London was running out of time.

The EU’s chief executive, the European Parliament Brexit negotiator and a host of prime ministers took to Twitter to call on London for ideas on what to do now to stop Britain crashing out of the bloc with no deal on March 29.

European Council president Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits, suggested the only real solution was for Britain to stay in the EU after British MPs defeated Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit divorce deal by a crushing margin of 432 to 202. “catastrophic”. EU leaders have insisted there could be no renegotiation.

But as the parliamentary defeat fed uncertainty in European capitals, several leaders called on Britain to come up with alternatives to the rejected withdrawal agreement.

Echoing the frustration of leaders of Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg, the EU parliament’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said British politicians now needed to say what kind of deal they wanted.

“The UK parliament has said what it doesn’t want,” Verhofstadt, a former Belgian premier, said on Twitter.

“Now it is time to find out what UK parliamentarians want. In the meantime, the rights of citizens must be safeguarded.”

REUTERS