Pub Bore Bureaucrat Olly Robbins: Accept May’s Deal or We’ll Delay Brexit

Olly Robbins
Getty Images
Oliver JJ Lane

The clearest indication yet that the government is planning to once again break its own word to the British people and delay Brexit beyond the official March 29th date has come with the apparently overheard speech of top Brexit bureaucrat Olly Robbins, where he loudly discussed the options for Brexit in a hotel bar.

British Civil Servant Oliver ‘Olly’ Robbins [pictured above, right] was caught telling fellow drinkers at a Brussels hotel bar after meetings between UK and EU leaders on Monday how Brexit would go by ITV correspondent Angus Walker, who was staying at the same hotel.

The journalist euphemistically described the volume with which Robbins was talking, writing “He was speaking in such a manner that you didn’t have to listen hard to hear him”, and reported the comments that Robbins had decided British Members of Parliament could either accept Theresa May’s Brexit deal or face Brexit being delayed.

It is impossible to speculate whether the incredible power unelected civil servant Robbins wields in the Brexit process really had gone to his head enough to turn him into an old-fashioned pub-bore monopolising discussion at an expensive Brussels hotel bar. Nor can it be known at this stage if the top advisor to the PM had instead chosen a semi-public place he knew he’d be overheard in by exactly the right types of people — journalists — to break the bad news to the British public.

ITV reports parts of Robbins’ conversation, when he apparently told the room: “The issue is whether Brussels is clear on the terms of extension… In the end they will probably just give us an extension… Got to make them believe that the week beginning end of March… Extension is possible but if they don’t vote for the deal then the extension is a long one…”

The comments may cause alarm to Brexiteers, for whom Britain leaving the European Union on March 29th come what may has been an important constant during the Brexit negotiation process, during which the Prime Minister got from the EU her highly controversial deal.

Robbins’ comments appear to confirm what has been said by several senior government ministers in recent weeks that the Prime Minister has abandoned privately her long-held mantra that “no deal is better than a bad deal” — and that she now intends to prevent the UK leaving the European Union fully at any cost. His words also directly contradicted what the Prime Minister herself told Parliament just yesterday when she said: “The talks are at a crucial stage, and we all need to hold our nerve to get the changes this house requires, and deliver Brexit on time.”

Responding to loose-lipped Robbins, UKIP leader Gerrard Batten said Wednesday morning:  “Contrary to what Mrs May says, the choice is the ‘Not Really Leaving Deal’, or we just don’t leave on March 29th. Also, the Irish backstop is a ‘bridge to the Future Relationship Agreement’ – leaving the way open for rejoining the EU a year or two later.

“Mr Robbin’s blunder confirms what I have suspected since 2016 – this government has no intention of delivering a complete, unencumbered exit from the European Union.

“UKIP, the authentic party of Brexit is ready to fight a European Parliament election should Article 50 be extended. Mrs May must consider whether or not she wishes to have the worst electoral defeat in history for the Tories on her record if she doesn’t deliver Brexit on March 29, 2019.”

Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook

 

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