Macron talks tough on long delay to Brexit

FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron warned yesterday that a Brexit extension was far from guaranteed.

Shortly after Theresa May opened the door to a compromise with Labour, the European Council president Donald Tusk tweeted: ‘Even if, after today, we don’t know what the end result will be, let us be patient’.

His intervention is a significant sign that the European Union is likely to be open to another delay if Britain proposes a closer relationship.

But Mr Macron had played hardball over the idea of a long extension, telling Britain not to ‘take it for granted’ that the EU would grant one.

He suggested the bloc would be prepared to let Britain crash out without a deal at a crunch summit next week if Mrs May arrived without ‘a credible alternative plan’.

He spoke on the steps of the Elysee Palace alongside Irish premier Leo Varadkar, who is said to be more relaxed about a long extension and was lobbying the French president to soften his stance.

Mr Macron declared: ‘Should the UK be unable to, three years after the referendum, propose a solution backed by a majority, they de facto will have chosen by themselves to leave without a deal.

‘Should this plan be new elections, a referendum, a different selection as to the future relationship such as a customs union, it’s not for me here to say so, we’re open to it, but it’s for London to say so and to say it now.

‘A long extension involving the participation of the UK in European elections and in EU institutions is far from evident and certainly not [to be taken] for granted.

‘Our priority shall be the good functioning of the EU and the single market. The EU cannot sustainably be the hostage to the solution to a political crisis in the UK.’

Mr Varadkar said: ‘We need to be open to any proposals the UK may bring forward to us.’

He will meet Angela Merkel tomorrow in Dublin, where the German chancellor is expected to tell him Ireland must have a plan for policing its border in the event of No Deal.