Ireland sees ‘entirely new’ Brexit plan
MAY SUPPORTERS DAMPEN SUGGESTIONS LONDON IS PLANNING A SECOND REFERENDUM
Britain would likely have to delay its departure from the European Union or rescind its exit notification “for the moment” if it wanted to put an “entirely new” Brexit proposal forward, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said yesterday.
“If there is an entirely new proposal coming from the UK, I think undoubtedly it would need a lot more time to be considered on the EU side and that would probably involve an extension of Article 50 or pulling Article 50 for the moment,” Coveney told RTE television when asked how the EU would react to a British parliamentary majority for an alternative to the current deal.
“But I think that would be a big decision for the UK to make and (British Prime Minister) Theresa May has said she doesn’t want to do that,” Coveney said.
Meanwhile, supporters of May dampened suggestions yesterday that the government is planning a second referendum on whether to leave the European Union, arguing that another Brexit vote would exacerbate divisions in the UK, not heal them. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC that holding another vote on Britain’s EU membership would settle little in a country that backed leaving the EU in 2016 by 51.9 per cent with the highest turnout for a UK vote since 1992.
Underscoring the acrimony in the nation over Brexit, May and former Prime Minister Tony Blair of the Labour Party traded jibes in the media.
May accused Blair of “undermining” her efforts to deliver Brexit by calling for a second referendum on whether or not to leave. May said his comments were “an insult to the office he once held.”
Blair shot back, saying he had a right to comment on “the most important decision our country has taken since the end of World War II. What is irresponsible, however, is to try to steamroller MPs into accepting a deal they genuinely think is a bad one with the threat that if they do not fall into line, the government will have the country crash out without a deal,” Blair said.
An extraordinary public row broke out yesterday between British Prime Minister Theresa May and former Labour party leader Tony Blair over her Brexit deal.
May accused Blair of insulting voters and trying to undermine her government with calls for a second referendum to break the political deadlock over the divorce deal she struck with the EU.
“For Tony Blair to go to Brussels and seek to undermine our negotiations by advocating for a second referendum is an insult to the office he once held and the people he once served,” May said in a statement issued late on Saturday. “We cannot, as he would, abdicate responsibility for this decision. Parliament has a democratic duty to deliver what the British people voted for.”
Blair, who was Labour prime minister between 1997 and 2007, yesterday accused the Conservative leader of being “irresponsible”.
“The sensible thing is now to allow parliament to vote on each of the forms of Brexit canvassed, including the prime minister’s deal,” he said.
“If they can’t reach agreement then the logical thing is to go back to the people.”
Blair opposes Brexit and, as May’s deal faces opposition on all sides of the House of Commons, he stepped up calls for the public to vote again.