EU chiefs insist door still open for UK to stay in

Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker say they would welcome UK ‘change of heart’

Senior politicians in Brussels have said the door is still open for the UK to change its mind on Brexit.

European Council president Donald Tusk told MEPs he would welcome a “change of heart” from Britain to stay in the EU.

The former Polish prime minister was backed up by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, who told Brits: “Our door still remains open.”

In a speech in Strasbourg, Mr Tusk said: “If the UK Government sticks to its decision to leave, Brexit will become a reality – with all its negative consequences – in March next year unless there is a change of heart among our British friends.

“Wasn’t it (Brexit Secretary) David Davis himself who said: ‘If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy’?”

Theresa May’s official spokesman insisted there would be no reversal of the decision made in the June 2016 referendum. “We have been absolutely clear that the British people voted to leave the European Union and that is what we will be doing,” he added.

The suggestion of reversing the Brexit decision came on the back of Boris Johnson causing fresh furore over the highly controversial claim the NHS would have an extra £350 million a week to spend after Brexit. The Foreign Secretary said the figure was “grossly under-estimated” by Vote Leave in an interview with The Guardian.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, from University College London, said the claim was “totally misleading”.

Last night, Nicola Sturgeon gave a speech in Edinburgh in which she said the “only sensible” form of Brexit was staying in the single market.

The First Minister has stopped short of demanding Brexit is halted in favour of maintaining EU benefits in a Norwaystyle arrangement.

“The EU referendum gave no mandate for leaving the single market,” the SNP leader told the David Hume Institute.

“So the idea that leaving the EU requires us to leave the single market and the customs union is simply an assertion of the Prime Minister’s – it is her interpretation of the referendum result and nothing more. “

The Scottish Government published a Brexit impact study on Monday.

A “no deal” between Brussels and London would slash the economy by £12.7 billion, the paper found.

Even if the UK was to remain in the single market – the “least worst” Brexit scenario – output in the country would drop by £4bn, St Andrew’s House economists predicted.

European Council President Donald Tusk.