Brexit: UK asks EU for further extension until 30 June - BBC News

Theresa May has written to the European Union to request a further delay to Brexit until 30 June.

The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 12 April and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by MPs.

The government has been in talks with the Labour Party to try and find a compromise to put to the Commons.

But shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the Tory negotiating team had offered no changes to Mrs May's original deal.

The PM said from the outset she wanted to keep her withdrawal agreement as part of any plan, but was willing to discuss the UK's future relationship with the EU - addressed in the deal's political declaration.

Sir Keir said the government was "not countenancing any change to the actual wording of the political declaration", adding: "Compromise requires change."

The prime minister has proposed that if UK MPs approve a deal in time, the UK should be able to leave before European Parliamentary elections on 23 May.

But she said the UK would prepare to field candidates in those elections in case no agreement is reached.

It is up to the EU whether to grant an extension to Article 50, the legal process through which the UK is leaving the EU, after MPs repeatedly rejected the withdrawal agreement reached between the UK and the bloc.

'Flexible extension'

The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler has been told by a senior EU source that European Council President Donald Tusk will propose a 12-month "flexible" extension to Brexit, with the option of cutting it short, if the UK Parliament ratifies a deal.

But French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Friday that it was "premature" to consider another delay while French diplomatic sources described Mr Tusk's suggestion as a "clumsy test balloon".

The prime minister wrote to Mr Tusk to request the extension ahead of an EU summit on 10 April, where EU leaders would have to unanimously agree on any plan to delay the UK's departure.

Mrs May has already requested an extension to the end of June but this was rejected at a summit last month.

Instead, she was offered a short delay to 12 April - the date by which the UK must say whether it intends to take part in the European Parliamentary elections - or until 22 May, if UK MPs had approved the withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU. They voted it down for a third time last week.

A Downing Street spokesman said there were "different circumstances now" and the prime minister "has been clear she is seeking a short extension".

Why 30 June?

The 30 June date is significant.

It's the day before the new European Parliament will hold its first session. So the logic is, that it would allow the UK a bit longer to seal a deal - but without the need for British MEPs to take their seats in a parliament that the UK electorate had voted to leave as long ago as 2016.

But, this being Theresa May, it's a plan she has previously proposed - and which has already been rejected.

It's likely the EU will reject it again and offer a longer extension, with the ability to leave earlier if Parliament agrees a deal.

But by asking for a relatively short extension - even if she is unsuccessful - the prime minister will be hoping to escape the ire of some of her Brexit-supporting backbenchers who are champing at the bit to leave.

And she will try to signal to Leave-supporting voters that her choice is to get out of the EU as soon as is practicable - and that a longer extension will be something that is forced upon her, rather than something which she embraces.

In her letter, the prime minister says she would continue to seek the "rapid approval" of the withdrawal agreement and a "shared vision" for the future relationship between the UK and EU.

She said if cross-party talks with the Labour Party could not establish "a single unified approach" in the UK Parliament - MPs would be asked to vote on a series of Brexit options instead which the government "stands ready to abide by", if Labour commits to doing the same.

The UK proposes an extension to the process until 30 June, she wrote, and "accepts the European Council's view that if the United Kingdom were still a member state of the European Union on 23 May 2019, it would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections".

To this end, she says the UK is "undertaking the lawful and responsible preparations for this contingency".

But she suggests the UK should be able to leave earlier, if the UK Parliament approves a withdrawal deal before then, and cancel preparations for the European Parliamentary elections.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, said any extension granted should be the last and final offer, to maintain the EU's credibility.

Tusk's 'flextension'

You could almost hear the sound of collective eye-rolling across 27 European capitals after Theresa May requested a Brexit extension-time that Brussels has already repeatedly rejected.

Most EU leaders are leaning towards a longer Brexit delay, to avoid being constantly approached by the PM for a rolling series of short extensions, with the threat of a no-deal Brexit always just round the corner.

Donald Tusk believes he has hit on a compromise solution: his "flextension" which would last a year, with the UK able to walk away from it, as soon as Parliament ratifies the Brexit deal.

But EU leaders are not yet singing from the same hymn sheet on this.

Expect closed-door political fireworks - though it's unclear whether it'll be a modest display or an all-out extravaganza - at their emergency Brexit summit next week. Under EU law, they have to hammer out a unanimous position.

Read Katya's blog

Talks between Labour and the Conservatives are continuing on Friday.

Speaking to Labour activists in Newport on Friday, Mr Corbyn said the government "haven't appeared to have changed their opinions very much as yet". He said Labour would push to maintain the UK's "market relationship with Europe", including defending rights and regulations.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK still hoped to leave "in the next couple of months" but it may have "little choice" but to accept a longer delay if Parliament could not agree a solution.

But Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said the EU "should be careful what it wishes for".

"If we have EU elections, it is likely UKIP, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage will do well," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Another Tory Eurosceptic, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said he would prefer to stay in the EU for another year than for Britain to accept a "humiliating defeat" of a withdrawal agreement.

The Scottish National Party's Stephen Gethins said that the prime minister's proposal "demonstrates beyond doubt she is putting the interests of her fractured Tory Party above all else".

"It is clear that with the UK Parliament unable to reach a consensus - coupled with everything we now know on the damaging impact Brexit will have on the UK economy, jobs and living standards - it must now be the priority that the issue is brought back to the people in a fresh second EU referendum, with the option to remain on the ballot paper."

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2019-04-06 04:51:43Z
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Brexit: UK asks EU for further extension until 30 June - BBC News

Theresa May has written to the European Union to request a further delay to Brexit until 30 June.

The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 12 April and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by MPs.

The government has been in talks with the Labour Party to try and find a compromise to put to the Commons.

But shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the Tory negotiating team had offered no changes to Mrs May's original deal.

The PM said from the outset she wanted to keep her withdrawal agreement as part of any plan, but was willing to discuss the UK's future relationship with the EU - addressed in the deal's political declaration.

Sir Keir said the government was "not countenancing any change to the actual wording of the political declaration", adding: "Compromise requires change."

The prime minister has proposed that if UK MPs approve a deal in time, the UK should be able to leave before European Parliamentary elections on 23 May.

But she said the UK would prepare to field candidates in those elections in case no agreement is reached.

It is up to the EU whether to grant an extension to Article 50, the legal process through which the UK is leaving the EU, after MPs repeatedly rejected the withdrawal agreement reached between the UK and the bloc.

'Flexible extension'

The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler has been told by a senior EU source that European Council President Donald Tusk will propose a 12-month "flexible" extension to Brexit, with the option of cutting it short, if the UK Parliament ratifies a deal.

But French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Friday that it was "premature" to consider another delay while French diplomatic sources described Mr Tusk's suggestion as a "clumsy test balloon".

The prime minister wrote to Mr Tusk to request the extension ahead of an EU summit on 10 April, where EU leaders would have to unanimously agree on any plan to delay the UK's departure.

Mrs May has already requested an extension to the end of June but this was rejected at a summit last month.

Instead, she was offered a short delay to 12 April - the date by which the UK must say whether it intends to take part in the European Parliamentary elections - or until 22 May, if UK MPs had approved the withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU. They voted it down for a third time last week.

A Downing Street spokesman said there were "different circumstances now" and the prime minister "has been clear she is seeking a short extension".

Why 30 June?

The 30 June date is significant.

It's the day before the new European Parliament will hold its first session. So the logic is, that it would allow the UK a bit longer to seal a deal - but without the need for British MEPs to take their seats in a parliament that the UK electorate had voted to leave as long ago as 2016.

But, this being Theresa May, it's a plan she has previously proposed - and which has already been rejected.

It's likely the EU will reject it again and offer a longer extension, with the ability to leave earlier if Parliament agrees a deal.

But by asking for a relatively short extension - even if she is unsuccessful - the prime minister will be hoping to escape the ire of some of her Brexit-supporting backbenchers who are champing at the bit to leave.

And she will try to signal to Leave-supporting voters that her choice is to get out of the EU as soon as is practicable - and that a longer extension will be something that is forced upon her, rather than something which she embraces.

In her letter, the prime minister says she would continue to seek the "rapid approval" of the withdrawal agreement and a "shared vision" for the future relationship between the UK and EU.

She said if cross-party talks with the Labour Party could not establish "a single unified approach" in the UK Parliament - MPs would be asked to vote on a series of Brexit options instead which the government "stands ready to abide by", if Labour commits to doing the same.

The UK proposes an extension to the process until 30 June, she wrote, and "accepts the European Council's view that if the United Kingdom were still a member state of the European Union on 23 May 2019, it would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections".

To this end, she says the UK is "undertaking the lawful and responsible preparations for this contingency".

But she suggests the UK should be able to leave earlier, if the UK Parliament approves a withdrawal deal before then, and cancel preparations for the European Parliamentary elections.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, said any extension granted should be the last and final offer, to maintain the EU's credibility.

Tusk's 'flextension'

You could almost hear the sound of collective eye-rolling across 27 European capitals after Theresa May requested a Brexit extension-time that Brussels has already repeatedly rejected.

Most EU leaders are leaning towards a longer Brexit delay, to avoid being constantly approached by the PM for a rolling series of short extensions, with the threat of a no-deal Brexit always just round the corner.

Donald Tusk believes he has hit on a compromise solution: his "flextension" which would last a year, with the UK able to walk away from it, as soon as Parliament ratifies the Brexit deal.

But EU leaders are not yet singing from the same hymn sheet on this.

Expect closed-door political fireworks - though it's unclear whether it'll be a modest display or an all-out extravaganza - at their emergency Brexit summit next week. Under EU law, they have to hammer out a unanimous position.

Read Katya's blog

Talks between Labour and the Conservatives are continuing on Friday.

Speaking to Labour activists in Newport on Friday, Mr Corbyn said the government "haven't appeared to have changed their opinions very much as yet". He said Labour would push to maintain the UK's "market relationship with Europe", including defending rights and regulations.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK still hoped to leave "in the next couple of months" but it may have "little choice" but to accept a longer delay if Parliament could not agree a solution.

But Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said the EU "should be careful what it wishes for".

"If we have EU elections, it is likely UKIP, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage will do well," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Another Tory Eurosceptic, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said he would prefer to stay in the EU for another year than for Britain to accept a "humiliating defeat" of a withdrawal agreement.

The Scottish National Party's Stephen Gethins said that the prime minister's proposal "demonstrates beyond doubt she is putting the interests of her fractured Tory Party above all else".

"It is clear that with the UK Parliament unable to reach a consensus - coupled with everything we now know on the damaging impact Brexit will have on the UK economy, jobs and living standards - it must now be the priority that the issue is brought back to the people in a fresh second EU referendum, with the option to remain on the ballot paper."

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2019-04-06 03:52:36Z
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Brexit: UK asks EU for further extension until 30 June - BBC News

Theresa May has written to the European Union to request a further delay to Brexit until 30 June.

The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 12 April and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by MPs.

The government has been in talks with the Labour Party to try and find a compromise to put to the Commons.

But shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the Tory negotiating team had offered no changes to Mrs May's original deal.

The PM said from the outset she wanted to keep her withdrawal agreement as part of any plan, but was willing to discuss the UK's future relationship with the EU - addressed in the deal's political declaration.

Sir Keir said the government was "not countenancing any change to the actual wording of the political declaration", adding: "Compromise requires change."

The prime minister has proposed that if UK MPs approve a deal in time, the UK should be able to leave before European Parliamentary elections on 23 May.

But she said the UK would prepare to field candidates in those elections in case no agreement is reached.

It is up to the EU whether to grant an extension to Article 50, the legal process through which the UK is leaving the EU, after MPs repeatedly rejected the withdrawal agreement reached between the UK and the bloc.

'Flexible extension'

The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler has been told by a senior EU source that European Council President Donald Tusk will propose a 12-month "flexible" extension to Brexit, with the option of cutting it short, if the UK Parliament ratifies a deal.

But French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Friday that it was "premature" to consider another delay while French diplomatic sources described Mr Tusk's suggestion as a "clumsy test balloon".

The prime minister wrote to Mr Tusk to request the extension ahead of an EU summit on 10 April, where EU leaders would have to unanimously agree on any plan to delay the UK's departure.

Mrs May has already requested an extension to the end of June but this was rejected at a summit last month.

Instead, she was offered a short delay to 12 April - the date by which the UK must say whether it intends to take part in the European Parliamentary elections - or until 22 May, if UK MPs had approved the withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU. They voted it down for a third time last week.

A Downing Street spokesman said there were "different circumstances now" and the prime minister "has been clear she is seeking a short extension".

Why 30 June?

The 30 June date is significant.

It's the day before the new European Parliament will hold its first session. So the logic is, that it would allow the UK a bit longer to seal a deal - but without the need for British MEPs to take their seats in a parliament that the UK electorate had voted to leave as long ago as 2016.

But, this being Theresa May, it's a plan she has previously proposed - and which has already been rejected.

It's likely the EU will reject it again and offer a longer extension, with the ability to leave earlier if Parliament agrees a deal.

But by asking for a relatively short extension - even if she is unsuccessful - the prime minister will be hoping to escape the ire of some of her Brexit-supporting backbenchers who are champing at the bit to leave.

And she will try to signal to Leave-supporting voters that her choice is to get out of the EU as soon as is practicable - and that a longer extension will be something that is forced upon her, rather than something which she embraces.

In her letter, the prime minister says she would continue to seek the "rapid approval" of the withdrawal agreement and a "shared vision" for the future relationship between the UK and EU.

She said if cross-party talks with the Labour Party could not establish "a single unified approach" in the UK Parliament - MPs would be asked to vote on a series of Brexit options instead which the government "stands ready to abide by", if Labour commits to doing the same.

The UK proposes an extension to the process until 30 June, she wrote, and "accepts the European Council's view that if the United Kingdom were still a member state of the European Union on 23 May 2019, it would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections".

To this end, she says the UK is "undertaking the lawful and responsible preparations for this contingency".

But she suggests the UK should be able to leave earlier, if the UK Parliament approves a withdrawal deal before then, and cancel preparations for the European Parliamentary elections.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, said any extension granted should be the last and final offer, to maintain the EU's credibility.

Tusk's 'flextension'

You could almost hear the sound of collective eye-rolling across 27 European capitals after Theresa May requested a Brexit extension-time that Brussels has already repeatedly rejected.

Most EU leaders are leaning towards a longer Brexit delay, to avoid being constantly approached by the PM for a rolling series of short extensions, with the threat of a no-deal Brexit always just round the corner.

Donald Tusk believes he has hit on a compromise solution: his "flextension" which would last a year, with the UK able to walk away from it, as soon as Parliament ratifies the Brexit deal.

But EU leaders are not yet singing from the same hymn sheet on this.

Expect closed-door political fireworks - though it's unclear whether it'll be a modest display or an all-out extravaganza - at their emergency Brexit summit next week. Under EU law, they have to hammer out a unanimous position.

Read Katya's blog

Talks between Labour and the Conservatives are continuing on Friday.

Speaking to Labour activists in Newport on Friday, Mr Corbyn said the government "haven't appeared to have changed their opinions very much as yet". He said Labour would push to maintain the UK's "market relationship with Europe", including defending rights and regulations.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK still hoped to leave "in the next couple of months" but it may have "little choice" but to accept a longer delay if Parliament could not agree a solution.

But Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said the EU "should be careful what it wishes for".

"If we have EU elections, it is likely UKIP, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage will do well," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Another Tory Eurosceptic, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said he would prefer to stay in the EU for another year than for Britain to accept a "humiliating defeat" of a withdrawal agreement.

The Scottish National Party's Stephen Gethins said that the prime minister's proposal "demonstrates beyond doubt she is putting the interests of her fractured Tory Party above all else".

"It is clear that with the UK Parliament unable to reach a consensus - coupled with everything we now know on the damaging impact Brexit will have on the UK economy, jobs and living standards - it must now be the priority that the issue is brought back to the people in a fresh second EU referendum, with the option to remain on the ballot paper."

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2019-04-06 02:42:37Z
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Brexit: UK asks EU for further extension until 30 June - BBC News

Theresa May has written to the European Union to request a further delay to Brexit until 30 June.

The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 12 April and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by MPs.

The government has been in talks with the Labour Party to try and find a compromise to put to the Commons.

But shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the Tory negotiating team had offered no changes to Mrs May's original deal.

The PM said from the outset she wanted to keep her withdrawal agreement as part of any plan, but was willing to discuss the UK's future relationship with the EU - addressed in the deal's political declaration.

Sir Keir said the government was "not countenancing any change to the actual wording of the political declaration", adding: "Compromise requires change."

The prime minister has proposed that if UK MPs approve a deal in time, the UK should be able to leave before European Parliamentary elections on 23 May.

But she said the UK would prepare to field candidates in those elections in case no agreement is reached.

It is up to the EU whether to grant an extension to Article 50, the legal process through which the UK is leaving the EU, after MPs repeatedly rejected the withdrawal agreement reached between the UK and the bloc.

'Flexible extension'

The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler has been told by a senior EU source that European Council President Donald Tusk will propose a 12-month "flexible" extension to Brexit, with the option of cutting it short, if the UK Parliament ratifies a deal.

But French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Friday that it was "premature" to consider another delay while French diplomatic sources described Mr Tusk's suggestion as a "clumsy test balloon".

The prime minister wrote to Mr Tusk to request the extension ahead of an EU summit on 10 April, where EU leaders would have to unanimously agree on any plan to delay the UK's departure.

Mrs May has already requested an extension to the end of June but this was rejected at a summit last month.

Instead, she was offered a short delay to 12 April - the date by which the UK must say whether it intends to take part in the European Parliamentary elections - or until 22 May, if UK MPs had approved the withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU. They voted it down for a third time last week.

A Downing Street spokesman said there were "different circumstances now" and the prime minister "has been clear she is seeking a short extension".

Why 30 June?

The 30 June date is significant.

It's the day before the new European Parliament will hold its first session. So the logic is, that it would allow the UK a bit longer to seal a deal - but without the need for British MEPs to take their seats in a parliament that the UK electorate had voted to leave as long ago as 2016.

But, this being Theresa May, it's a plan she has previously proposed - and which has already been rejected.

It's likely the EU will reject it again and offer a longer extension, with the ability to leave earlier if Parliament agrees a deal.

But by asking for a relatively short extension - even if she is unsuccessful - the prime minister will be hoping to escape the ire of some of her Brexit-supporting backbenchers who are champing at the bit to leave.

And she will try to signal to Leave-supporting voters that her choice is to get out of the EU as soon as is practicable - and that a longer extension will be something that is forced upon her, rather than something which she embraces.

In her letter, the prime minister says she would continue to seek the "rapid approval" of the withdrawal agreement and a "shared vision" for the future relationship between the UK and EU.

She said if cross-party talks with the Labour Party could not establish "a single unified approach" in the UK Parliament - MPs would be asked to vote on a series of Brexit options instead which the government "stands ready to abide by", if Labour commits to doing the same.

The UK proposes an extension to the process until 30 June, she wrote, and "accepts the European Council's view that if the United Kingdom were still a member state of the European Union on 23 May 2019, it would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections".

To this end, she says the UK is "undertaking the lawful and responsible preparations for this contingency".

But she suggests the UK should be able to leave earlier, if the UK Parliament approves a withdrawal deal before then, and cancel preparations for the European Parliamentary elections.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, said any extension granted should be the last and final offer, to maintain the EU's credibility.

Tusk's 'flextension'

You could almost hear the sound of collective eye-rolling across 27 European capitals after Theresa May requested a Brexit extension-time that Brussels has already repeatedly rejected.

Most EU leaders are leaning towards a longer Brexit delay, to avoid being constantly approached by the PM for a rolling series of short extensions, with the threat of a no-deal Brexit always just round the corner.

Donald Tusk believes he has hit on a compromise solution: his "flextension" which would last a year, with the UK able to walk away from it, as soon as Parliament ratifies the Brexit deal.

But EU leaders are not yet singing from the same hymn sheet on this.

Expect closed-door political fireworks - though it's unclear whether it'll be a modest display or an all-out extravaganza - at their emergency Brexit summit next week. Under EU law, they have to hammer out a unanimous position.

Read Katya's blog

Talks between Labour and the Conservatives are continuing on Friday.

Speaking to Labour activists in Newport on Friday, Mr Corbyn said the government "haven't appeared to have changed their opinions very much as yet". He said Labour would push to maintain the UK's "market relationship with Europe", including defending rights and regulations.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK still hoped to leave "in the next couple of months" but it may have "little choice" but to accept a longer delay if Parliament could not agree a solution.

But Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said the EU "should be careful what it wishes for".

"If we have EU elections, it is likely UKIP, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage will do well," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Another Tory Eurosceptic, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said he would prefer to stay in the EU for another year than for Britain to accept a "humiliating defeat" of a withdrawal agreement.

The Scottish National Party's Stephen Gethins said that the prime minister's proposal "demonstrates beyond doubt she is putting the interests of her fractured Tory Party above all else".

"It is clear that with the UK Parliament unable to reach a consensus - coupled with everything we now know on the damaging impact Brexit will have on the UK economy, jobs and living standards - it must now be the priority that the issue is brought back to the people in a fresh second EU referendum, with the option to remain on the ballot paper."

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2019-04-06 01:33:41Z
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Brexit: UK asks EU for further extension until 30 June - BBC News

Theresa May has written to the European Union to request a further delay to Brexit until 30 June.

The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 12 April and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by MPs.

The government has been in talks with the Labour Party to try and find a compromise to put to the Commons.

But shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the Tory negotiating team had offered no changes to Mrs May's original deal.

The PM said from the outset she wanted to keep her withdrawal agreement as part of any plan, but was willing to discuss the UK's future relationship with the EU - addressed in the deal's political declaration.

Sir Keir said the government was "not countenancing any change to the actual wording of the political declaration", adding: "Compromise requires change."

The prime minister has proposed that if UK MPs approve a deal in time, the UK should be able to leave before European Parliamentary elections on 23 May.

But she said the UK would prepare to field candidates in those elections in case no agreement is reached.

It is up to the EU whether to grant an extension to Article 50, the legal process through which the UK is leaving the EU, after MPs repeatedly rejected the withdrawal agreement reached between the UK and the bloc.

'Flexible extension'

The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler has been told by a senior EU source that European Council President Donald Tusk will propose a 12-month "flexible" extension to Brexit, with the option of cutting it short, if the UK Parliament ratifies a deal.

But French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Friday that it was "premature" to consider another delay while French diplomatic sources described Mr Tusk's suggestion as a "clumsy test balloon".

The prime minister wrote to Mr Tusk to request the extension ahead of an EU summit on 10 April, where EU leaders would have to unanimously agree on any plan to delay the UK's departure.

Mrs May has already requested an extension to the end of June but this was rejected at a summit last month.

Instead, she was offered a short delay to 12 April - the date by which the UK must say whether it intends to take part in the European Parliamentary elections - or until 22 May, if UK MPs had approved the withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU. They voted it down for a third time last week.

A Downing Street spokesman said there were "different circumstances now" and the prime minister "has been clear she is seeking a short extension".

Why 30 June?

The 30 June date is significant.

It's the day before the new European Parliament will hold its first session. So the logic is, that it would allow the UK a bit longer to seal a deal - but without the need for British MEPs to take their seats in a parliament that the UK electorate had voted to leave as long ago as 2016.

But, this being Theresa May, it's a plan she has previously proposed - and which has already been rejected.

It's likely the EU will reject it again and offer a longer extension, with the ability to leave earlier if Parliament agrees a deal.

But by asking for a relatively short extension - even if she is unsuccessful - the prime minister will be hoping to escape the ire of some of her Brexit-supporting backbenchers who are champing at the bit to leave.

And she will try to signal to Leave-supporting voters that her choice is to get out of the EU as soon as is practicable - and that a longer extension will be something that is forced upon her, rather than something which she embraces.

In her letter, the prime minister says she would continue to seek the "rapid approval" of the withdrawal agreement and a "shared vision" for the future relationship between the UK and EU.

She said if cross-party talks with the Labour Party could not establish "a single unified approach" in the UK Parliament - MPs would be asked to vote on a series of Brexit options instead which the government "stands ready to abide by", if Labour commits to doing the same.

The UK proposes an extension to the process until 30 June, she wrote, and "accepts the European Council's view that if the United Kingdom were still a member state of the European Union on 23 May 2019, it would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections".

To this end, she says the UK is "undertaking the lawful and responsible preparations for this contingency".

But she suggests the UK should be able to leave earlier, if the UK Parliament approves a withdrawal deal before then, and cancel preparations for the European Parliamentary elections.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, said any extension granted should be the last and final offer, to maintain the EU's credibility.

Tusk's 'flextension'

You could almost hear the sound of collective eye-rolling across 27 European capitals after Theresa May requested a Brexit extension-time that Brussels has already repeatedly rejected.

Most EU leaders are leaning towards a longer Brexit delay, to avoid being constantly approached by the PM for a rolling series of short extensions, with the threat of a no-deal Brexit always just round the corner.

Donald Tusk believes he has hit on a compromise solution: his "flextension" which would last a year, with the UK able to walk away from it, as soon as Parliament ratifies the Brexit deal.

But EU leaders are not yet singing from the same hymn sheet on this.

Expect closed-door political fireworks - though it's unclear whether it'll be a modest display or an all-out extravaganza - at their emergency Brexit summit next week. Under EU law, they have to hammer out a unanimous position.

Read Katya's blog

Talks between Labour and the Conservatives are continuing on Friday.

Speaking to Labour activists in Newport on Friday, Mr Corbyn said the government "haven't appeared to have changed their opinions very much as yet". He said Labour would push to maintain the UK's "market relationship with Europe", including defending rights and regulations.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK still hoped to leave "in the next couple of months" but it may have "little choice" but to accept a longer delay if Parliament could not agree a solution.

But Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said the EU "should be careful what it wishes for".

"If we have EU elections, it is likely UKIP, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage will do well," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Another Tory Eurosceptic, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said he would prefer to stay in the EU for another year than for Britain to accept a "humiliating defeat" of a withdrawal agreement.

The Scottish National Party's Stephen Gethins said that the prime minister's proposal "demonstrates beyond doubt she is putting the interests of her fractured Tory Party above all else".

"It is clear that with the UK Parliament unable to reach a consensus - coupled with everything we now know on the damaging impact Brexit will have on the UK economy, jobs and living standards - it must now be the priority that the issue is brought back to the people in a fresh second EU referendum, with the option to remain on the ballot paper."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47825841

2019-04-06 00:34:06Z
52780260471939

Brexit: UK asks EU for further extension until 30 June - BBC News

Theresa May has written to the European Union to request a further delay to Brexit until 30 June.

The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 12 April and, as yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved by MPs.

The government has been in talks with the Labour Party to try and find a compromise to put to the Commons.

But shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the Tory negotiating team had offered no changes to Mrs May's original deal.

The PM said from the outset she wanted to keep her withdrawal agreement as part of any plan, but was willing to discuss the UK's future relationship with the EU - addressed in the deal's political declaration.

Sir Keir said the government was "not countenancing any change to the actual wording of the political declaration", adding: "Compromise requires change."

The prime minister has proposed that if UK MPs approve a deal in time, the UK should be able to leave before European Parliamentary elections on 23 May.

But she said the UK would prepare to field candidates in those elections in case no agreement is reached.

It is up to the EU whether to grant an extension to Article 50, the legal process through which the UK is leaving the EU, after MPs repeatedly rejected the withdrawal agreement reached between the UK and the bloc.

'Flexible extension'

The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler has been told by a senior EU source that European Council President Donald Tusk will propose a 12-month "flexible" extension to Brexit, with the option of cutting it short, if the UK Parliament ratifies a deal.

But French President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Friday that it was "premature" to consider another delay while French diplomatic sources described Mr Tusk's suggestion as a "clumsy test balloon".

The prime minister wrote to Mr Tusk to request the extension ahead of an EU summit on 10 April, where EU leaders would have to unanimously agree on any plan to delay the UK's departure.

Mrs May has already requested an extension to the end of June but this was rejected at a summit last month.

Instead, she was offered a short delay to 12 April - the date by which the UK must say whether it intends to take part in the European Parliamentary elections - or until 22 May, if UK MPs had approved the withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU. They voted it down for a third time last week.

A Downing Street spokesman said there were "different circumstances now" and the prime minister "has been clear she is seeking a short extension".

Why 30 June?

The 30 June date is significant.

It's the day before the new European Parliament will hold its first session. So the logic is, that it would allow the UK a bit longer to seal a deal - but without the need for British MEPs to take their seats in a parliament that the UK electorate had voted to leave as long ago as 2016.

But, this being Theresa May, it's a plan she has previously proposed - and which has already been rejected.

It's likely the EU will reject it again and offer a longer extension, with the ability to leave earlier if Parliament agrees a deal.

But by asking for a relatively short extension - even if she is unsuccessful - the prime minister will be hoping to escape the ire of some of her Brexit-supporting backbenchers who are champing at the bit to leave.

And she will try to signal to Leave-supporting voters that her choice is to get out of the EU as soon as is practicable - and that a longer extension will be something that is forced upon her, rather than something which she embraces.

In her letter, the prime minister says she would continue to seek the "rapid approval" of the withdrawal agreement and a "shared vision" for the future relationship between the UK and EU.

She said if cross-party talks with the Labour Party could not establish "a single unified approach" in the UK Parliament - MPs would be asked to vote on a series of Brexit options instead which the government "stands ready to abide by", if Labour commits to doing the same.

The UK proposes an extension to the process until 30 June, she wrote, and "accepts the European Council's view that if the United Kingdom were still a member state of the European Union on 23 May 2019, it would be under a legal obligation to hold the elections".

To this end, she says the UK is "undertaking the lawful and responsible preparations for this contingency".

But she suggests the UK should be able to leave earlier, if the UK Parliament approves a withdrawal deal before then, and cancel preparations for the European Parliamentary elections.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, said any extension granted should be the last and final offer, to maintain the EU's credibility.

Tusk's 'flextension'

You could almost hear the sound of collective eye-rolling across 27 European capitals after Theresa May requested a Brexit extension-time that Brussels has already repeatedly rejected.

Most EU leaders are leaning towards a longer Brexit delay, to avoid being constantly approached by the PM for a rolling series of short extensions, with the threat of a no-deal Brexit always just round the corner.

Donald Tusk believes he has hit on a compromise solution: his "flextension" which would last a year, with the UK able to walk away from it, as soon as Parliament ratifies the Brexit deal.

But EU leaders are not yet singing from the same hymn sheet on this.

Expect closed-door political fireworks - though it's unclear whether it'll be a modest display or an all-out extravaganza - at their emergency Brexit summit next week. Under EU law, they have to hammer out a unanimous position.

Read Katya's blog

Talks between Labour and the Conservatives are continuing on Friday.

Speaking to Labour activists in Newport on Friday, Mr Corbyn said the government "haven't appeared to have changed their opinions very much as yet". He said Labour would push to maintain the UK's "market relationship with Europe", including defending rights and regulations.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK still hoped to leave "in the next couple of months" but it may have "little choice" but to accept a longer delay if Parliament could not agree a solution.

But Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said the EU "should be careful what it wishes for".

"If we have EU elections, it is likely UKIP, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage will do well," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

Another Tory Eurosceptic, Sir Bernard Jenkin, said he would prefer to stay in the EU for another year than for Britain to accept a "humiliating defeat" of a withdrawal agreement.

The Scottish National Party's Stephen Gethins said that the prime minister's proposal "demonstrates beyond doubt she is putting the interests of her fractured Tory Party above all else".

"It is clear that with the UK Parliament unable to reach a consensus - coupled with everything we now know on the damaging impact Brexit will have on the UK economy, jobs and living standards - it must now be the priority that the issue is brought back to the people in a fresh second EU referendum, with the option to remain on the ballot paper."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47825841

2019-04-05 08:06:37Z
52780260471939

U.K. Politicians Are in Full-Blown Brexit Panic Mode - New York Magazine

Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May are trying to come up with a last-minute breakthrough. Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage

If the U.K. government and Parliament don’t agree on a workable plan for Brexit by next Friday, their country is on track to crash out of the European Union with no deal. If there is one thing Prime Minister Theresa May and most (but not all!) members of Parliament can agree on, it’s that a no-deal Brexit would be materially disastrous for Britain and fatal to their own political fortunes as well. Nonetheless, despite an escalating series of desperate moves this week, they are still distressingly far from a final deal.

On Monday, Parliament narrowly rejected several potential alternatives to the thrice-rejected Brexit deal May negotiated with the E.U. (If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s almost an exact repeat of the strategy they tried last week.) All four indicative votes failed, but two “soft Brexit” motions came within striking distance of a majority. The first, tabled by Conservative whip Nick Boles, would have the U.K. enter a permanent customs union with the E.U. The other, dubbed “Common Market 2.0,” is a Norwegian-style arrangement that would entail joining the European Free Trade Association and European Economic Area. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had encouraged his party’s MPs to vote for both options, which most did, but ten Labour MPs voted against the customs union and 25 rejected the common market proposal — more than enough to flip the outcomes.

The deep internal divisions Brexit has uncovered in both major parties were instrumental in ensuring that there was no majority for any option. While Labour is riven between MPs advocating a soft Brexit and those holding out for no Brexit at all, the Tories are split into several factions, with some willing to back May’s deal, others seeking a softer Brexit, and the right flank demanding a hard Brexit, even if that means crashing out with no deal. Boles reacted to the defeat of his motion on Monday by resigning from the Conservative Party entirely, lashing out at its refusal to compromise.

On Tuesday, May convened her cabinet for a seven-hour come-to-Jesus meeting in which nobody seemed willing to come to Jesus. The prime minister emerged from the meeting with an announcement that she would seek another “Brextension” from the E.U. (the original deadline was March 29) and would sit down with Corbyn to try and find a compromise. For May, this represented a major step down from her previous insistence that no deal was better than a bad deal, indicating that she was now willing to accept a softer Brexit plan that a large faction of her own party would reject.

This olive branch to the opposition did not go over well among the Tories: Two ministers quit the government in protest on Wednesday, including Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris, who claimed in his resignation letter that the country was better prepared for a crash-out than May realized and that the country should have departed the E.U. last Friday as planned. May has now faced more resignations, and at a faster pace, than any of the last five prime ministers who preceded her, and the bloodletting may not be over: She could ultimately lose 15 ministers, including five cabinet ministers, over this outrage.

Just as the Tory Brexiteer rebels are nipping at May’s heels, Corbyn himself is now facing pressure from his party to push for a second referendum: Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told her colleagues she would insist that any cross-party pact be put to a public vote, with the option to cancel Brexit and remain in the E.U. on the ballot. The Scottish National Party is also increasingly firm in its demands for a second referendum. On the other hand, one of May’s Northern Irish allies, the Democratic Unionist Party, hinted that his party could hold their nose and vote for a customs union as “a temporary staging post” toward the U.K. being able to make its own trade deals again (although just how the U.K. gets from point A to point B in that scenario remains a mystery).

The prime minister and Corbyn did not come to any conclusions in Wednesday’s discussions but described them as “constructive.” May’s hope is that she and the opposition leader can either agree on a compromise solution, or at least on a binding process to conclusively determine what form of Brexit is acceptable to the House of Commons. Their talks are continuing today.

Wednesday also saw further drama in Parliament, with two knife-edge votes. MPs split 210-210 — the Commons’ first tie since 1993 — on whether to hold yet another round of indicative votes next Monday. Speaker John Bercow, who is only allowed to vote to break ties, cast the deciding vote against the motion, arguing that it would be improper for him to “create a majority which does not otherwise exist.” At the end of the day, by just one vote, the lower house passed hastily prepared legislation reaffirming their commitment to avoiding no-deal and requiring May to request a further delay from Brussels, with Parliament getting a say in the details of that extension.

Any further delay would require the unanimous consent of the 27 other member states of the E.U., which is not a given. The two-week extension they granted last month was controversial, and far short of the three months May had asked for. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday that the bloc would not grant any more short-term extensions without a final deal in hand by the April 12 deadline. The U.K. is looking at asking for a longer delay, perhaps nine months, but with the option of bringing it to a close as soon as Parliament approves a plan. This could require the U.K. to participate in the impending election of a new European Parliament in late May, which the E.U. has been keen to avoid. Given how thin E.U. leaders’ patience has been stretched, there is a very real chance that the May’s request will be rebuffed at next Wednesday’s emergency European Council meeting.

Even the E.U. officials who have been most willing to cut the U.K. a break are anticipating a crash-out next week. The E.U.’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt tweeted after Monday’s vote that a hard Brexit was now “nearly inevitable.” The bloc’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier called the no-deal scenario “very likely,” as did Juncker in his statement yesterday. Meanwhile, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said the risk of a disorderly Brexit was now “alarmingly high.” Deutsche Bank announced on Monday that it had raised its estimate for the probability of a no-deal Brexit from 20 to 25 percent and was shorting the pound. Many businesses have already prepared for the worst, meaning the toll of Brexit on the British economy is already partly locked in, no matter what happens now.

To get a sense of how bad a no-deal Brexit would be, look at the letter leaked to the Daily Mail on Monday in which Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill warned senior ministers of a 10 percent increase in food prices, a recession worse than the one in 2008, the weakening of public order and national security, and the need to reintroduce direct rule in Northern Ireland for the first time since 2007. It’s not hard to see why May is willing to sacrifice what’s left of her political career to avoid this; really, the only question is what on earth took her so long.

A fundamental obstacle to U.K. legislators passing a Brexit deal is and has always been that most MPs really never supported Brexit in the first place. Even most Conservative MPs, including May herself and most of her cabinet, were Remainers (and remain so), even as they pretend otherwise to pander to their pro-Leave constituents. Nearly three years after stumbling into a popular mandate for a choice most MPs know to be bad, they can’t bring themselves to comply with it.

Parliament has now voted three times against a no-deal Brexit, but MPs have no control over the decisions of European heads of state, much less the inexorable forward march of time. Absent an acceptable deal with majority support (or a politically calamitous decision to revoke Article 50), the U.K. leaves the E.U. next Friday, ready or not — any delay just kicks that can a little farther down the road. That’s why the hard Brexiteers look most likely to get what they want right now: Everyone else has to get their preferred solution through Parliament and then past the E.U., but all they have to do is wait.

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http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/uk-politicians-brexit-panic-mode.html

2019-04-04 17:18:08Z
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