EU negotiator: MEPs could still decide to wreck any final deal
A FINAL Brexit deal could still be voted down by the European Parliament, triggering a crisis in British politics, its chief negotiator warned yesterday.
Guy Verhofstadt said if MEPs – or even British MPs – voted against whatever agreement is reached, the UK would fall into ‘unknown territory’. He said such a situation might lead to a change in government and a ‘new position of that government on Brexit’.
In a provocative interview yesterday, the Belgian MEP also insisted Britain would have to accept EU migrants who came here during the transition period would have the right to stay.
Mr Verhofstadt suggested Britain’s trade deal with the EU would not be finalised before we leave, but instead hammered out before the end of transition, likely to be the end of 2020.
Theresa May has previously insisted that trade arrangements must be formalised before Brexit on March 29, 2019.
On the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Verhofstadt was asked what would happen if the withdrawal deal was voted down. He said: ‘There will be, I presume, a crisis in British politics. Maybe an election. Maybe after that election, a new government and maybe a new position of that new government on Brexit.’
Mr Verhofstadt ruled out ‘passporting’ arrangements to allow businesses to sell financial services in Europe being included in a deal. But he said it could cover services in some form.
He added: ‘What will be in that agreement, we will see. Financial passports will not be there because that’s the actual system.
‘You need to be part of the single market to have that. What we don’t want is that with this whole agreement we establish a type of a financial centre that is competing with the Continent.’