LOCK THEM IN A ROOM UNTIL THEY AGREE

EU Brexit boss, in a typically haughty intervention, says...

IREGRET that Theresa May’s deal received the crushing defeat it did in Westminster this week. Given the red lines she set out, the deal on the table was the only possible one. Moreover, it provided for an orderly divorce. Financial obligations are squared away. The agreement on citizens caught in the crossfire means ‘The kids will be OK’.

Moreover, the post-divorce relationship would be close and enduring, and the future deal could be negotiated quickly, making the backstop, designed to protect the Good Friday Agreement, an insurance policy that should never be required.

Many MPs have complained that the declaration on the future does not provide certainty, but it was never going to be possible to decide now in detail what the EU-UK relationship of 2030 would be.

If necessary, this document could still be enhanced in the next coming weeks. British politicians will always find an open door to do that, but they must act soon.

This will only happen if political parties in the UK start to work together.

Such a cross-party approach is not natural to the adversarial UK political system, but it’s time to change course and to put the national interest ahead of narrow party political interests.

Such an approach is familiar to me and most other politicians on the Continent. EU laws often end up being finalised after late-night negotiations, with MEPs and ministers locked in a room with an evening to thrash out compromises.

Locking politicians in a room until they agree was a favourite pastime of mine as Prime Minister of Belgium, where we constantly face existential negotiations linked to language and identity.

A cultural shift to this in Britain may not only win the respect of the British public, but it would also win over European negotiators, who have been crying out for a united position from London.

If politicians want the country to unite, they have to lead by example.

What European politicians will not tolerate, however, is any British politician seeking to resolve their continuing domestic political divisions by again bringing them to the corridors of Brussels. We have our own problems too.

Any request to extend negotiations would be assessed in good faith, but I have serious doubts to agree any extension that goes beyond July 1, as this is when a new European Parliament is constituted after European elections.

The European Union is essentially a peace project. After centuries of conflict and bloody wars, countries agreed to let their past differences play out on the football pitch instead of the battlefield.

It is time for British politicians to get out of their trenches and start talking.

A so called ‘no deal’ would be a disaster. It would poison relations between Britain and the rest of Europe for decades. No responsible politician should entertain it.

And for Remainers, there is no reason why the United Kingdom has to be out of the European Union for eternity.

The deal on the table does not rule out an application to rejoin in the future. I have no doubt that one day a young politician will lead the UK back into the EU, where it belongs.

But for now, those most negatively affected by Brexit – our businesses, our young people, EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU deserve an orderly withdrawal.

It is time for British leaders to lead.

It is time for UK politicians to get out of their trenches