Flextension
May under pressure as EU set to insist on long delay
Longer delay would allow UK to rethink its Brexit strategy DONALD TUSK EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT
THERESA May will face frustrated EU leaders tonight as she prepares to beg for yet another delay to Brexit.
The PM’s bid to push back Brexit day from Friday to June 30 is expected to be crushed, as the EU demands a long “flextension” forcing the UK to contest the EU elections on May 23.
EU Council President Donald Tusk said: “Our experience so far, as well as the deep divisions within the House of Commons, give us little reason to believe the ratification can be completed by the end of June.”
He said it would risk “a rolling series of short extensions and emergency summits, creating new cliffedge dates” which would “overshadow the business of the EU27”. In a clear hint that the EU hopes for a softer Brexit, he added: “A longer extension would allow the UK to rethink its Brexit strategy.”
Mrs May was in Berlin and Paris yesterday laying the groundwork for today’s talks. German media reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel could support a flextension until 2020 with the UK able to leave earlier.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted tough conditions in return for a delay.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar said he was confident a deal on extending the deadline will be reached tonight.
But Brexit talks between Labour and the Tories broke down yesterday, raising fears the two sides remain too far apart to strike a compromise.
There are also concerns that any future Tory PM, likely to be a Brexiteer, would fail to stick to any agreement. One source in the room said talks had just “circled around” the key issue of a customs union.
Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier suggested a customs union could be written into the agreement “within hours”. Trade secretary Liam Fox savaged the idea as the “worst of both worlds” that would leave Britain with “no say” in EU trade policy.
In a leaked letter to Tory MPs, he said: “As the famous saying in Brussels goes, if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”
The PM faced a revolt as 97 Tory MPs voted against a Government motion to delay Brexit and 80 MPs abstained, including 12 ministers.