Tusk’s ultimatum: Say yes to deal or leave on March 29
DONALD Tusk has issued an ultimatum to Britain to endorse the EU withdrawal deal if they want an extension to the Brexit process.
However, Mr Tusk, the European Council president, said he believed a short delay ‘would be possible’ after he spoke to Theresa May following her formal request for a delay to the process until the end of June.
The leaders of the Labour Party; Scottish National Party; Liberal Democrats; Green Party; Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru; and the Independent Group are understood to have been invited to meetings with Mrs May to discuss her plans for a delayed Brexit, and her hopes that she can get a deal passed through the House of Commons
Last night Mrs May addressed the British public on television, telling them that she knew they wanted Brexit over and done with and she was ‘on their side’.
Leo Varadkar yesterday told the Irish Daily Mail that the whole process of a formal delay was ‘cutting the British government some slack’ on its efforts to leave the EU.
He was pressed on whether Britain was being issued with an ultimatum after Mr Tusk formally declared that an extension was ‘conditional on a positive vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons’.
The Taoiseach reacted to reports that France’s President Emmanuel Macron wanted to refuse an extension – forcing Britain into a crash-out departure.
‘There are some people who would take a much more hardline view that we shouldn’t agree to an extension,’ said Mr Varadkar.
‘And there are others who would take a view than an extension should be granted unconditionally. The view the Irish Government was taking is that it is anxious to avoid a no deal next week.
‘We are willing to cut the British government some slack in terms of their request for an extension and their request that the Stras- bourg Agreement [the package agreed with the EU to reassure MPs about her Brexit deal] be ratified formally at the European Council tomorrow or Friday.
‘But when it comes to the Withdrawal Agreement or the Irish backstop, those cannot be changed.’
Mr Varadkar added: ‘Brexit is just taking up so much of the agenda, so much bandwidth, that there is growing frustration across the European Union that it hasn’t been resolved.
‘But from our point of view, that frustration can’t allow us to end up in a no-deal scenario by accident. I have to protect the country in that regard.’ The Taoiseach said Ireland supported an extension, but had an open view as to how long it should go on for.
‘I think it would be important for the heads of state and government to hear from Prime Minister May what her plan is,’ he said.
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said that the British government now knew it must accept the agreed Withdrawal Agreement and backstop, and should ‘stop trying to play chicken with the EU.’
The rapid developments came after Mrs May requested a threemonth delay to the Brexit process. This would postpone departure from March 29 to June 30.
Mrs May made the request in a letter to Mr Tusk exactly 1,000 days after the 2016 referendum, which delivered a 52% to 48% majority to leave the EU.
And she sparked speculation that she may step down if either MPs or Europe demand a longer extension to the Article 50 negotiation process, declaring: ‘As Prime Minister, I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than June 30.’