British prime minister Theresa May has reportedly told Germany’s Angela Merkel that she will not delay Brexit beyond March 29th.
The United Kingdom is currently on course to leave the European Union on clean, No Deal terms on March 29th, as the Mrs May’s proposed Withdrawal Agreement with the bloc has been rejected by Parliament, and the date has been enshrined as exit day by the EU Withdrawal Act.
The legislation allows the Government to alter exit day, however, and its largely europhile ministers are threatening to rebel against the Prime Minister to back an amendment tabled by Labour’s Yvette Cooper to take a clean Brexit “off the table” if she cannot secure significant changes to the withdrawal deal.
This would take place when Parliament has its next “meaningful vote” on Brexit — which Mrs May has now pushed back, saying it will be held “by” the 12th of March — barely a couple of weeks before exit day.
Business Losing Patience with Anti-Brexiteers as EU Pushes Exit Delay https://t.co/urAh94xRTY
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 25, 2019
The rejected deal would not actually finalise a new partnership with the EU, merely commit the British government to handing Brussels an estimated £39 billion in exchange for a years-long “transition” period in which is would essentially become a non-voting EU member-state while negotiations continue.
The major sticking point is the so-called “backstop” which would come into force if a deal is not struck in that time — supposedly designed to guarantee a “frictionless” land border with the Republic of Ireland is maintained, by allowing the EU to effectively annex the British province of Northern Ireland for customs and regulatory purposes, and forcing Great Britain proper into an EU-controlled “single customs territory” with the bloc.
The most egregious aspect of the backstop, from the perspective of Northern Irish unionists and Brexiteers, is that the Withdrawal Agreement does not envision a time-limit for the backstop, and does not allow Britain to leave it without the EU’s agreement.
100 Pro-EU MPs Could Rebel Against Govt to Delay Brexit Rather than Accept No Deal https://t.co/YnXC10K5dc
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 22, 2019
With the EU apparently unwilling to budge on this issue, and British europhiles apparently unwilling to countenance simply walking away on No Deal terms rather than accept a bad deal, it had been expected that the Prime Minister might delay exit day to give her more time to win concessions — as many of her own ministers are demanding.
Irish taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar certainly gave the impression that he believed this would be the case, saying he expected that come March 29th there would be either a deal or a delay — but The Times is reporting that the famously mercurial Prime Minister has told EU strongwoman Angela Merkel that she will not be pushing exit day back at the EU-Arab League summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Ministers are not happy, it is understood, with one europhile saying: “She must rule out No Deal clearly and unequivocally or it will be taken out of her hands.”
Several ministers, including Cabinet ministers, have intimated or outright threatened that they might vote against their own Government to stop No Deal — and Mrs May has so far been unwilling to say whether she would take any action to punish them for doing so.
Strong stuff; Theresa May, they tell me (in a couple of cases actually shouting) is the Death Star of modern British politics. She’s the theory of anti-matter, made flesh. She’s a political black hole because nothing, not even light, can escape. https://t.co/72CSn9WXT2
— Ben de Pear (@bendepear) February 22, 2019
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