Scotland set to press for new referendum
Europe tells May the ball is in her court
POLITICAL LEADERS across Europe yesterday ramped up the pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to break the impasse over Britain’s departure from the European Union in the wake of the historic Commons defeat for her proposed Brexit deal.
Mrs May is facing mounting pressure from senior European political figures to ensure that a no-deal Brexit is avoided at all costs after MPs rejected her Brexit plans in the historic vote on Tuesday evening which saw the Commons witness its worst ever defeat.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful politician in Europe, maintained yesterday that there was still time for negotiations between the EU and Britain over its departure from the remaining 27-state bloc.
She admitted that she regretted the decision by British MPs to oppose the agreement negotiated by Mrs May and the EU.
Mrs Merkel told reporters in Berlin yesterday that “we will of course do everything to find an orderly solution, but we are also prepared if there is no orderly solution”.
She added that “we still have time to negotiate, but we are now waiting to see what the British Prime Minister proposes”.
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, warned that the British Government now needed to explain how it intends to proceed with Brexit after Mrs May’s deal was rejected by an overwhelming majority of 230 in the Commons.
He said he “profoundly” regretted the vote by MPs on Tuesday to reject the Withdrawal Agreement hammered out with Brussels.
Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday, Mr Barnier said the vote showed the “political conditions” were not yet present in London to ratify the agreement.
“It is up to the British authorities THE SCOTTISH Government will be “intensifying” its calls for a second European referendum in the wake of the Commons Brexit vote, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The Scottish First Minister headed to London after MPs overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed Withdrawal Agreement in the historic Commons vote.
Ms Sturgeon has challenged Mrs May to convene “urgent” talks with the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales in a bid to resolve the Brexit impasse.
The SNP leader said Mrs May had “clearly failed to bring the country together” in support of her proposed deal, and she demanded the PM must now “change course” and “genuinely involve” all regions of the UK in Brexit plans.
She called for a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council – which brings together the heads of the devolved administrations with the UK Government – to take place, insisting such talks “must be more than window dressing”.
today or tomorrow to assess the outcome of this vote and up to the British Government to indicate how we are going to take things forward on March 29 to an orderly withdrawal,” he added.
Mr Barnier’s stark warning was echoed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who claimed that the onus is on Westminster to find solutions to the Brexit crisis which the EU and Ireland can accept.
The Irish premier said if the UK evolved its red lines on the Customs Union and access to the Single Market then the EU could do likewise, adding that he also profoundly regretted the vote by MPs to reject the proposed Withdrawal Agreement. “We should never forget that Brexit is a British policy that originated in Westminster,” he said.
Speaking during a Press conference in Dublin yesterday, he recalled the months of negotiations involved in crafting the draft agreement.
“That solution has now been rejected by Westminster, the problem now lies there,” he added. “The onus is on Westminster to come up with solutions that they can support, but they must be solutions that the EU and Ireland can accept.
“We have always said that if the UK were to evolve from its red lines on the Customs Union and the Single Market, that the European position would evolve also.”
DUP leader Arlene Foster urged Mrs May to go back to Europe and seek a better deal, and claimed the Irish Government should help find solutions to Brexit.
She has also claimed there had never been a hard border on the island of Ireland, and told the Northern Ireland-based U105 radio: “For those of us who lived on the border and who were attacked by the IRA, we know that the IRA escaped across that border so it was not a hard border, nobody wants to go back to that.
“It takes the will to look for solutions and the regrettable thing is the Republic of Ireland has not been in the solution-finding mode.
“I hope that they are now, I hope that our Prime Minister uses that vote last night to go to Europe and to look for a better deal.”
The DUP’s 10 MPs voted against Mrs May’s draft EU Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday. Opposition had focused on the backstop, an insurance policy to avoid a hard Irish border after Brexit.
The onus is on Westminster to come up with solutions.
Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar