Brexit: EU, Theresa May agree to delay Brexit by up to six weeks

EU leaders and Theresa May agree to delay Brexit for up to six week, alleviating pressure to get her deal passed next week.

Theresa May, speaks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, right, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, left, during a round table meeting at an EU summit. Picture: AP.,

EU leaders have agreed with Theresa May to delay Brexit for up to six weeks, alleviating the pressure on the British PM to get her withdrawal bill past parliament next week.

After a night of intense debate, all 27 members of the EU agreed two scenarios; an extension until 22 May, provided the withdrawal bill is approved by the House of Commons and, if it is not passed, an extension of just two weeks, until April 12.

The new deadline will allow the UK parliament a way to take control of the future of Brexit and avoid a no-deal showdown next week.

Mrs May, speaking after she agreed to the EU plan, told reporters she still preferred to leave Europe with a deal.

“We are now at the moment of decision,” she said.

European Council president Donald Tusk said he was much more optimistic after discussions, saying “(it has) eased the process for both sides … we have so many options’’

But Brussels insiders say the EU was not convinced by Mrs May’s presentation today, and she was unable to guarantee that the Brexit withdrawal bill will even be presented to parliament next week as it depended on the interpretation of the Speaker of the House, John Bercow.

As EU leaders realised that Mrs May was not bluffing about sparking a no deal Brexit on March 29, the intensity and length of discussions deepened among them. The leaders decided to allow space for the UK parliament to work around any withdrawal bill defeat and try to come up with alternative plans. The meeting overrun its scheduled time by four hours.

One diplomat who briefed Brussels reporters said: “She didn’t even give clarity if she is organising a vote. Asked three times what she would do if she lost the vote, she couldn’t say. It was awful. Dreadful. Evasive even by her standards.’’

But in an extraordinary development, EU leaders decided to ignore Mrs May’s request for an Article 50 extension to June 30, instead drafting two extension deadlines.

Backbenchers have already tabled various amendments for next Monday in Westminster designed to allow the parliament to take control of the parliamentary scheduling and allow a series of indicative votes. This would be non-binding ones to see if there is agreement for any style of Brexit at all.

It comes amid reports MPs will try once more to wrest control of parliament from the PM. A similar attempt last week was voted down by only a majority of two.

👇👇👇
One more attempt at Cooper-Boles on Monday.

Last one lost by 2 - will this pass after Theresa May’s Wednesday speech angered and worried many MPs

And will it have the intended effect? https://t.co/J1L7AvyxMm

— Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) March 21, 2019

Mr Tusk said the EU27 had responded to UK requests in a positive spirit.

European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said: “We have worked tirelessly, we have done everything we could to get it over the finishing line … this closes and completes the full package, there is no more we can give. We are hopeful the agreement will be adopted by the House of Commons. Whatever happens we are ready for every eventuality, if a no deal we are ready.

Meanwhile, a public petition calling for Article 50 to be revoked has gathered more than 2 million signatures, with the parliamentary petition website crashing several times under the weight of hits on it.

Macron: Back May or crash out

Earlier, attempting to pile maximum pressure on UK parliamentarians to back Mrs May’s reintroduced deal after two previous hefty defeats, France president Emmanuel Macron insisted: “A no vote will guide everyone to a no deal”, before adding “There must be deep political change for there to be anything but a technical extension.”

The European leaders, in Brussels for the European Council summit, have discussed the British PM’s request for an extension to Article 50 to June 30.

However the qualification that her deal must be accepted next week has been complicated by the refusal of Speaker of the House John Bercow to accept the deal back in the House unless it is changed substantially.

Mrs May therefore has to convince the Speaker that by adding the EU’s technical extension to her withdrawal bill, it will be deemed suitably different in substance in order to be able to put it to a vote.

If the withdrawal bill is defeated for a third time, the EU leaders will be summoned to an emergency meeting at the end of the week to assess if they should allow a longer extension, and if they can’t agree unanimously on an extension, to force the UK to decide between a no deal Brexit or cancelling Brexit altogether.

Mrs May has refused her Brexit spokespeople from talking about any possible no deal Brexit. And she has angered MP’s by blaming them for the Brexit conundrum.

Luxembourg’s president Xavier Bettel said Brexit was akin to Samuel Beckett’s famous play, Godot, where the central character never arrives.

“I have the feeling sometimes I’m in the waiting room, waiting for Godot, and Godot is never coming,” he said.

Mr Macron, who has been the most strident leader — perhaps eyeing the Brexit woes as an unwelcome interruption to his grand plans for Europe — warned that the EU’s patience was wearing thin.

“We have to be clear,” he said, first in French and then in English.

“We can discuss and agree a technical extension in case of a yes vote. In case of no, I mean directly it will guide everybody to a no deal. For sure, this is it.”

But the German chancellor Angela Merkel, mindful of the German car manufacturers dreading a no deal Brexit, said:” To the last hour, we must do everything to ensure that there can be an orderly British exit from the EU.”

In early discussions European diplomats suggested that the article 50 extension could be limited to April 18 because that’s the deadline for officially notifying the EU of a country’s participation in the upcoming May 23 EU parliamentary elections.

Others like European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker believe the extension could be pushed out to May 22, much closer to Mrs May’s three month request.

Meanwhile the Bank of England has reversed its earlier gloomy Brexit forecasts and announced that 80 per cent of British businesses believe they are ready for a no deal Brexit.

The Bank expects growth to pick-up to 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of the year, compared to its February forecast of 0.2 per cent as consumer spending recovers.

But two big lobby groups representing businesses and workers penned a joint letter demanding the Prime Minister change tack on Brexit. They have demanded that no deal be removed as an option, that a long extension to Brexit be secured and then a plan B formulated.

“Our country is facing a national emergency,”” leaders of the business group CBI and union TUC said in a statement.

Mrs May insisted that the UK would be leaving the EU and repeated that she would not revoke Brexit, and believed that a long extension of article 50 would be the wrong thing to do.

She said: “It is the duty of parliament to deliver on that result of the referendum. I hope all MP’s agree with me, it is time for that decision.’’

Mrs May added that there were ‘’passionately held views on all sides’’ and admitted to expressing frustration in her speech of Wednesday where she blamed parliament for the Brexit deadlock.

‘’Yes I expressed frustration and MPs are frustrated too,’’ she said, showing a more conciliatory tone toward the MP’s that she is now asking to back her deal when it returns for a possible vote next week.