Non! Macron pushes for delay of just 15 days

EMMANUEL Macron was last night leading resistance to a proposed threemonth Brexit delay.

The French president is said to favour an extension which does not spill into 2020 and is potentially as short as just 15 days, forcing MPs to act or face No Deal.

Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain are said to back him – with the Netherlands reportedly drifting towards this position.

Germany and Ireland however, are among the countries that are more relaxed about the idea of a three month delay.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar confirmed his support while German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said the January 31 deadline would ‘not fail due to Germany’. EU Council chief Donald Tusk has proposed that the three-month delay has a flexible end date, which could expire after the Commons has passed Boris Johnson’s new deal, before or after a general election.

Mr Tusk spoke to the PM yesterday and later tweeted: ‘I’m recommending the eU27 accept the UK request for an extension.’

however, sources say France has raised serious concerns about a longer extension and an elysee Palace official said that Paris’s current thinking was that a maximum of 15 days should be given.

France’s european affairs minister, Amelie de Montchalin, appeared to confirm the French want to pile pressure on MPs to pass the withdrawal bill or face No Deal.

She said: ‘At the end of the week we’ll see whether a purely technical extension of a few days is justified, to allow the British Parliament to finish its procedure.’

Brussels is expecting Mr Tusk to announce either today or tomorrow whether an extraordinary summit will be held, potentially on Monday. But he has said a meeting would not be needed if EU leaders approved his proposal for a ‘flextension’.

And one senior diplomat believes there is no appetite for a summit and EU members will likely go along with Mr Tusk’s plan. They said: ‘The mood has really changed, now people just want this done. We were at first critical of Boris Johnson, but now we are critical of the Labour opposition for blocking it. Basically we see Johnson more as an ally now. everybody wants the UK to leave as soon as possible.’