A hardline europhile lawmaker has said that Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage is working to persuade Italy’s right-populist Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini that his country should veto any delay to Britain leaving the European Union.
Longest-serving Member of European Parliament (MEP) Elmar Brok, who is also an influential figure in the European Parliament’s Brexit steering group, said that Mr Farage had “already agreed with Salvini… that he will refuse any extension” to Britain’s Article 50 negotiations with Brussels, to ensure the United Kingdom leaves the EU on March 29th as currently scheduled.
“[Nigel Farage] himself claims that this is the case, that such agreements exist,” Brok claimed.
“I do not know if he’s just making a fuss about it now, or if that’s true. But if I see the policy of Salvini, I think that’s imaginable.
“As I said, the extension must be unanimous in the Council, in the European Council. And that is always in the unpredictable,” the German MEP told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Sunday.
Farage Tells Europe After May’s Defeat: Reject Brexit Extension And We Can All Get On With Our Lives https://t.co/qYU0G2k8bJ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 13, 2019
After Prime Minister Theresa May lost a second vote on her Withdrawal Agreement last week — triggering subsequent votes to stop a “No Deal” departure and delay Brexit day — Farage asked the EU to veto any extension request, so “both you and we can get on with the rest of our lives. That is the only neat solution ahead of us.”
Brok, a member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), had said shortly after last week’s vote that he could not imagine the extension of Article 50 passing without a valid reason, reiterating on Sunday that “‘no extension without clarification’ is, I think, a basic condition. That is also the view of the vast majority in the European Parliament that this can be done.”
France’s Emmanuel Macron may also possibly veto an extension, unless Britain agrees to strict concessions which may include a softer Brexit.
Breitbart London reported last week that EU leaders will only grant a long extension, should the current deal be voted down for a third time by MPs, if the Prime Minister agrees to use the time to decide between a second referendum, staying in the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union, or cancelling Brexit altogether.
While Remainers and establishment media have criticised Mr Farage for “lobbying” foreign leaders by making his veto request, the European Union was happy to undermine the Prime Minister itself in February, declaring that it preferred the Brexit plan of opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn as a means to break the Brexit deadlock.
Farage: If Parliament Delays Brexit Once, It Will Delay ‘Again and Again’ https://t.co/I5FQve4wkt
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 27, 2019
Breitbart London also reported last week that ultra Remainer and former Labour prime minister Tony Blair had been secretly advising Emmanuel Macron on how to stop Brexit by rejecting concession requests, with the Iraq War architect cited as having told the French leader, “You’ve got to hold firm and then we’ll end up staying.”
Blair is also reported to have met with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss Brexit, and Michel Barnier, Brussels’ hardline Brexit negotiator, had also reportedly met with the Tony Blair Institute in 2018.
Moreover in 2017 former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, notional conservative Tory MP Ken Clarke, and Labour’s Lord Andrew Adonis — dubbed the “Unholy Trinity” by Farage — were invited to meet Barnier to discuss Britain’s exit from the EU, despite none of the lawmakers representing the British government’s position, and all openly backing Parliament overturning the will of the people, who voted to leave the EU in June 2016.
There is supposed to be a third vote on Theresa May’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement this week. Should the vote be lost, she will ask the EU 27 to support a delay to Brexit.
Mr Farage has warned that if Parliament is allowed to extend Article 50 once, “we will extend again and again.”
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