It is still not too late to change your mind on leaving, EU tells Britain

DONALD TUSK and Jean-claude Juncker yesterday told Britain that the door was still open for the country to change its mind over Brexit.

Appearing to back a second referendum on UK membership of the European Union, Mr Tusk, the president of the European Council, said: “If the UK 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.”

Mr Tusk, the former prime minister of Poland added: “We here on the Continent haven’t had a change of heart. Our hearts are still open to you.”

Jean-claude Juncker, who is president of the European Commission, told MEPS: “I hope that that will be heard clearly in London.”

They were speaking a day after five Remain-supporting MPS, including Tory Brexit rebels, visited Brussels.

“Wasn’t it David Davis himself who said that if a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy,” Mr Tusk asked, referring to a speech given by Britain’s Brexit Secretary in 2012.

Meanwhile, European Parliament leaders ruthlessly mocked Britain for celebrating the return of its “muchmissed” blue passport, which Theresa May had said expressed post-brexit “independence and sovereignty”.

Manfred Weber, leader of the largest political group in the European Parliament, said there was nothing in existing EU rules that demanded passports be of a certain colour. “The whole story is a scam,” he crowed. “Why don’t you tell the people the truth?”

Blue passports appeared to be Mrs May’s “only achievement” since she triggered the Brexit process in March 2017, said the Bavarian MEP, who leads the European People’s Party.

On Monday, MPS including Tory Brexit rebels Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry met Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief negotiator in Brussels. The allparty parliamentary group on EU relations raised the prospect of voting down the Brexit deal. Speaking in Brussels and denying she was undermining Mrs May’s negotiating hand, Ms Soubry said: “Both political parties have a number of backbenchers who feel differently from their front benches.”

Last week, Nigel Farage, the MEP and ex-ukip leader, offered apparent support for a second referendum after a separate meeting with Mr Barnier.