EU leader Tusk says Brexit can be reversed

EU PRESIDENT Donald Tusk yesterday said Brexit could be reversed as leaders gathered for a Brussels summit amid growing confidence in a future without Britain.

Prime Minister Theresa May will make EU leaders an offer on the rights of expats after Britain’s withdrawal as she tries to convince them she still has a grip after her election meltdown.

But Tusk, who has repeatedly said Brexit benefits no one, channelled former Beatle John Lennon as he became the latest in a series of EU leaders to suggest it was not too late to change tack.

“Some of my British friends have asked me whether Brexit could be reversed, and whether I could imagine an outcome where the UK stays part of the European Union,” Tusk told reporters. “I told them that in fact the European Union was built on dreams that seemed impossible to achieve, so who knows?”

“You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one,” he added with a smile, quoting Lennon’s iconic song Imagine.

Newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble both said last week that the “door was open” for Britain to remain in the EU.

“The PM will give an update to the other member states on the UK’s Brexit plans following the beginning of the negotiations this week,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

During a dinner yesterday, May was to “outline some principles of the UK’s paper on citizens rights which will be published at the beginning of next week”, the spokesman said.