Brits warned: ‘There is no Plan B’
EU LEADERS warned the British parliament not to wreck Theresa May’s Brexit deal, saying a package agreed with the prime minister yesterday was the best Britain will get.
“Those who think that, by rejecting the deal, they would get a better deal, will be disappointed,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said after EU leaders formally endorsed a treaty setting terms for British withdrawal in March, and an outline of a future EU-UK trade pact.
Asked whether there was any chance Brussels would reopen the pact if an alliance of pro- and anti-Brexit forces votes it down in the House of Commons, Juncker simply stressed “this is the best deal possible”. Summit chair Donald Tusk sounded more guarded, saying he did not want to consider hypotheticals.
May used a post-summit news conference to make a sales pitch for her plan, saying it was the “only possible deal”, offering control of UK borders and budgets while maintaining close co-operation with EU regulations that was good for business and the security of the broader region.
Parliament’s vote could open the door to a “brighter future” or condemn the country to more division, she said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the bloc’s veteran guiding force, was unwilling to speculate on what she called a “historic day” that was both “tragic and sad”. But Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country chairs EU meetings until the end of the year, said there could be no more negotiations.
“There is no Plan B,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “If anyone in the UK thinks that by voting ‘No’ something better would come out of it, they are wrong.”
The 27 leaders took barely half an hour to rubber-stamp the 600-page withdrawal treaty, aimed at an orderly exit on March 29 to be followed by two to three years of a status quo transition period. The outline of a future trading and security partnership was just 26 pages long. May’s critics say it leaves Britain tied to EU regulations that it will no longer have a say in setting.
Her foreign minister, Jeremy Hunt, said the Brexit deal was a “staging post” towards Britain getting everything it wanted from leaving the EU, but that the arithmetic for getting the deal approved was looking “challenging”.
Britain could also simply crash out on March 29. Both sides have been preparing for such a “no deal” scenario. The pound has strengthened since the deal came together, but companies and investors remain nervous.
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up May’s minority government, said it would try to block the deal because it binds London to many EU rules and the DUP fears it may weaken the province’s ties to Britain – a result of efforts to avoid a risk of a “hard border” with EU member Ireland. Wrangling over how to keep open Northern Ireland’s land border with the EU dogged much of the Brexit talks.
Britain’s 300-year-old naval base in Gibraltar on Spain’s southern coast also threatened to derail plans. But Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was satisfied with guarantees on Saturday of a say in Gibraltar’s future. |