FIGHTS FOR JOB AS VOTE LOOMS

Wait must go on, says MPs’ Brexit committee

BREXIT BLOCK A POWERFUL committee of MPs today savages Theresa May’s Brexit deal as a leap into the unknown.

They say Britain will be unable to leave the EU on March 29 next year and Article 50 must be extended.

The MPs – from Labour, the Tories, the Scottish and Welsh Nats, Lib

Dems and DUP – all sit on the

Commons Brexit committee. Their unanimous report makes uncomfortable reading for the

PM this morning.

They have considered the two documents which Mrs May negotiated with Europe. These are the legally binding withdrawal agreement, which cannot be touched, and the political declaration, which provides a framework for our future EU relationship. The report rips both to shreds.

It says: “The PM’s deal fails to offer sufficient clarity or certainty for the future of the UK.”

The committee chairman, former shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn, says: “It’s because the Government refused to face up to hard choices that this deal represents a huge step into the unknown.”

The political declaration is slammed for not giving UK business any idea of what awaits it ten years from now.

And the MPs warn that activation of the Irish backstop would set up barriers to UK-EU trade, bringing “the threat of significant economic disruption”.

They say no future deal with the EU can be certain because any one of the remaining 27 member states can veto it.

Mr Benn’s committee says the PM must establish how far the deal will follow EU rules to maintain frictionless trade. The report adds: “It’s not a choice the Government is so far willing to make.”

With so much still to be decided, Brexit will have to be postponed, the MPs say.

They declare: “The Brexit process will not be concluded by March 2019.”