Tusk: No Brexit if UK MPs reject deal
May says she is focused on persuading lawmakers to back her proposal, not a plan B
Britain’s choice would be to leave the European Union without a deal or abandon Brexit altogether if its parliament rejects an agreement between the EU and Prime Minister Theresa May, European Council President Donald Tusk said yesterday.
“A few days before the vote in the House of Commons, it is becoming more and more clear that this deal is the best possible — in fact, the only possible one,” Tusk said, ruling out any renegotiation by the EU if the British parliament votes down ■ last Sunday’s deal on December 11.
“If this deal is rejected in the Commons, we are left with ... an alternative: no deal or no Brexit at all. I want to reassure you that the EU is prepared for every scenario,” he said during the G20 meeting in Argentina.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday that she was focused on persuading lawmakers to back her EU divorce deal at the vote in parliament on December 11 rather than preparing a plan B, accusing opponents of trying to betray voters over Brexit.
May secured an agreement with European Union leaders that will see Britain leave the bloc on March 29 with continued close trade ties, but the odds look stacked against her getting it through a deeply divided British parliament.
The deal has been criticised by both Eurosceptics and europhiles among May’s own Conservative Party.