THERESA May’s request for yet another brief Brexit delay was given short shrift by European leaders yesterday, with demands for more detail about what exactly the Tory thought she could achieve by pushing the cliff edge back another six weeks.
In her letter to European Council president Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister pleaded for Brexit to be postponed until June 30.
She said she would try to get her deal through the Commons before the European Parliament elections on May 23, but added that the UK would “continue to make responsible preparations” to hold the vote “should this not prove possible”.
READ MORE: Labour walk out of Brexit talks as Theresa May refuses to negotiate
The request will be considered at an emergency EU summit on April 10, but the initial response was frosty.
German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said there were “many questions still to clarify in London”.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: “The plan was that the British would explain what they wanted from the EU. A letter was sent today which, as far as I am concerned, doesn’t answer this request.”
Rutte said the May had offered “no full plan, there was only part of a plan”.
He added: “We hope London will provide more clarity before Wednesday ... The ball is not here in the Netherlands, or in Paris or Berlin. The ball really is in London.”
A source close to President Emmanuel Macron made clear France was not ready to accept an extension unless Britain presented a clear plan for the future: “We’re not there today.”
Reports yesterday suggested Brussels were minded to offer a year-long flexible extension, which would delay Brexit but allow the UK to move onto a transition if May’s deal was ratified Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that while none of the European leaders wanted a no-deal Brexit, the “rolling extensions” was not exactly great either.
“None of us want a no-deal next week, [we] certainly don’t want it in Ireland, I know the UK doesn’t want it and Europe doesn’t want it either.
“But we also want to avoid rolling extensions where there is an extension every couple of weeks, or every couple of months, because that just adds to the uncertainty for citizens, for businesses and for farmers.
“So perhaps a longer extension might make more sense.”
Closer to home, Arlene Foster, the DUP, who prop up May’s government, was unhappy: “The Prime Minister’s latest plea to Brussels for an extension to article 50 is unsurprising but unsatisfactory. It should not have been like this. Exiting the EU has become chaotic because of intransigence in Brussels and ineffectiveness in London.”
Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg warned Europe against bouncing the UK into a year long delay: “If a long extension leaves us stuck in the EU we should be as difficult as possible.
“We could veto any increase in the budget, obstruct the putative EU army and block Macron’s integrationist schemes.”
Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “How strange – isn’t this the same guy who said the UK had no power to do any of these things in the EU and that’s why we had to leave.”
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