May fights lonely battle for support
Isolated at home and abroad, British Prime Minister Theresa May will be labouring against the odds once again to win backers in parliament for her unloved Brexit deal, this time to a timetable dictated by the European Union.
The bloc’s leaders yesterday seized control of the Brexit timetable from May to avert a chaotic departure at the end of this month.
‘‘We are prepared for the worst but hope for the best,’’ European Council president Donald Tusk said. ‘‘As you know, hope dies last.’’
May’s mantra since Britain’s EU membership referendum in 2016 has always been about ‘‘taking back control’’ of the United Kingdom’s affairs from the EU. But the process has seen her lose control, first of the British parliament, which has twice rejected her Brexit deal, and now of Britain’s date of departure.
In a move that underlined their loss of confidence in May, EU leaders set two deadlines for Britain to leave the bloc or to take an entirely new path in considering its EU future.
At marathon talks in Brussels, they rejected May’s request to extend the Brexit deadline from March 29 until June 30. Instead, they agreed to extend it until May 22, on the eve of European Parliament elections, if she can persuade the British parliament to endorse the withdrawal agreement.
Failing that, May now has until April 12 to choose between leaving the bloc without a divorce deal and a radically new path, such as revoking Britain’s decision to leave, holding a new referendum on Brexit, or finding a cross-party consensus for a very different kind of Brexit.
Ending a two-day summit, Tusk said there was now nothing more the EU could do to help May. ‘‘The fate of Brexit is in the hands of our British friends.’’
The EU’s choice of deadline aims to ensure that Britain doesn’t take part in the May 23-26 elections for the EU parliament if it is leaving. As of now, Britain’s seats in the next EU Parliament have been redistributed to other nations.
The EU leaders seized hold of the Brexit process when May – after repeated questioning – proved unwilling or unable to tell them what she planned to do next week if she failed yet again to convince a sceptical parliament to endorse her Brexit deal, EU officials said.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said some EU nations were against giving Britain a Brexit delay because they were ‘‘sick of’’ the interminable Brexit process.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said the EU hoped British MPs would make ‘‘a rational choice, that it will be a choice to maintain close economic and security links with the European Union’’.
The legally binding Brexit agreement that May signed with her EU partners last November has been twice rejected by British MPs, once by a historic margin, and she angered MPs earlier this week by suggesting they are responsible for the Brexit impasse.
May was more conciliatory yesterday, saying she had ‘‘expressed my frustration. I know that MPs are frustrated, too. They have difficult jobs to do. I hope we can all agree we are now at the moment of decision.’’
The battle now shifts back to the British parliament, where May plans to hold a third vote on her deal next week, though there are few signs of a big shift in opinion.
Pro-EU MPs said the bloc’s decision showed that May needed to change course and consider alternatives to her rejected Brexit deal. They plan an attempt starting tomorrow to force a change of direction by setting out a series of votes in parliament on alternatives, including a plan to keep close economic ties with the EU.
Some EU leaders yesterday urged British MPs to rip up May’s Brexit red lines to secure a closer relationship with the bloc if they reject her deal next week.
Even before she triggered the Article 50 process to leave the EU, May set two red lines for the negotiations – that Britain could not remain in the single market, or have a customs arrangement that ruled out signing comprehensive new free trade deals.
Leaving the EU summit in Brussels, the leaders of the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium opened the prospect of a softer Brexit should May’s deal fall.