Gove content to delay Brexit
MICHAEL Gove, a leading contender to replace British Prime Minister Theresa May, said he would delay Brexit rather than rush into a no-deal exit that could trigger an election that would propel Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to power.
The UK could be heading towards a constitutional crisis over Brexit as many of the candidates vying to succeed May are prepared to leave the EU on October 31 without a deal but parliament has indicated it will try to thwart such a scenario.
Nearly three years since the UK voted 52%-48% to leave the EU, the ruling Conservative Party had its worst result in centuries in a European election last month, and opinion polls indicate a snap election would produce a hung parliament.
Gove, who scuppered the 2016 leadership bid of former foreign minister Boris Johnson by withdrawing his support at the last moment to run himself, said he would seek a further delay to Brexit if efforts to renegotiate the deal were close to a breakthrough.
“Would it really be in our best interests to opt for a no-deal exit when just a little more time and effort could make all the difference?” Gove said
Other contenders – including Johnson, Andrea Leadsom, Dominic Raab and Sajid Javid – have said they would seek to negotiate a deal but, if that were not possible, they would then lead the world’s fifth-largest economy out of the EU without any agreement.
Gove said to rush into a no-deal exit would lead to a Labour government propped up by the Scottish National Party which wants another referendum on Scottish independence.
“That would surely hand Downing Street to a Jeremy Corbyn government propped up by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. That would mean Brexit was lost, the future of our Union at risk and the levers of power handed to a Marxist,” he wrote.
Some European officials have cautioned that London will find it hard to delay Brexit again as EU leaders question the point of an extension.
May’s failure to deliver Brexit by the original March 29 deadline destroyed her premiership.
But any new British prime minister, expected to be in place by the last days of July, will face a deadlocked political system.
Parliament has failed to agree on how, when or even if the UK will leave the club it joined in 1973. If a British leader went for a no-deal Brexit, MPs have vowed to prevent it.
While the Conservative Party’s MPs, who get the first say on who should be prime minister, are divided over Brexit, the party’s 160 000 members, who get the final vote on candidates in a run-off, are much more supportive of leaving without agreement.
The EU has refused to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement reached with May last November, and Ireland has indicated it is not willing to discuss changes to the Irish border “backstop” that upset the party which props up May’s minority government.
The backstop – to ensure frictionless trade between Northern Ireland and Ireland – would force the UK to follow many EU rules unless and until “alternative arrangements” ensuring no hard border were agreed.