Emmanuel Macron dealt a heavy blow to Theresa May’s meager hopes of a Brexit delay today, warning that a third defeat for her deal at the hands of British MPs would see the UK crash out of the EU without a deal.
The French President spoke out against a longer Article 50 extension as Mrs May tried to woo EU leaders with a personal plea for a three-month hiatus at a showdown Brussels summit.
Piling pressure on to MPs ahead of next week’s proposed third Commons vote Mr Macron said: ‘In the case of a negative British vote then we’d be heading to a No Deal. We all know it’, adding a longer extension would require ‘a deep political change’ in Britain – a nod to a second referendum or general election.
The Democratic Unionist Party and hardline Tory Brexiteers remain bitterly opposed to Mrs May’s deal.
And the situation may have been made worse by the PM’s Wednesday night TV address which sparked cross-party fury when she blamed them for postponing Brexit.
Other EU leaders queued up to deliver the same No Deal warning including Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel who said: ‘You decided to leave – you want us [the EU] to be the bad guy. But if there is no deal [at Westminster] in days there will be No Deal. We can’t extend – for me it is then over’.
While European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was asked if he was tiring of Mrs May’s political drama at home and said: ‘I didn’t even know I had this much patience’.
The No Deal threats will excite Brexiteers but will be ominous news for Remainers who are hoping that the EU will offer a long delay so they can push for the softest possible Brexit or stop it completely.
Mrs May yesterday begged the EU to stop the clock until June 30 – but arriving in Brussels today she wouldn’t rule out leaving with No Deal next week if her plan is defeated in the Commons again.
Emmanuel Macron and France have taken one of the hardest lines against Britain over Brexit in the past three years
A smiling Theresa May says hello to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel as she asks the EU to delay Brexit until June
The Prime Minister met with Irish Taoiseach Leo Veradkar and President of the European Council Donald Tusk before addressing the 27 EU leaders to explain why they should accept a three-month Article 50 extension.
Walking into the summit – which was meant to the last one Britain would ever attend as an EU member – she said: ‘This is a matter of personal regret for me but a short extension would give Parliament time to make a final choice that delivers on the result of the referendum.’
She twice refused to rule out a No Deal Brexit on March 29 but added: ‘I still want to leave with a deal’. Mrs May added: ‘What matters is that we recognise that Brexit is the decision of the British people – we need to deliver on that. We’re nearly three years on from the original vote – it is now the time for Parliament to decide’.
If Article 50 is not extended, then the UK will crash out of the EU next Friday, in all likelihood without a deal as MPs have already rejected Mrs May’s exit plans twice.
Any decision by the EU to accept Britain’s extension of Article 50 must be unanimous, meaning the potential Macron veto could be devastating to Mrs May’s plans.
For France, two criteria will count in a possible support for the British extension request: the likelihood that the British Parliament will end up ratifying the agreement, but also the impact of this extension on the European Union.
Theresa May arriving in Brussels today ahead of a lengthy grilling by EU leaders over her Brexit plans
Mrs May was kissed by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, who has suggested they will demand a May 22 Brexit rather than a June 30
A ‘cross-party majority’ of MPs believe they can force through a soft Brexit that would include freedom of movement if Theresa May loses another vote on her deal next week.
Tory former minister Oliver Letwin said he believed that a plan known as ‘Norway Plus’ or ‘Common Market 2.0’ could succeed if the PM fails get enough backing for her plan to leave in June.
This would include membership of the Single Market, which requires free movement of people.
It came as the DUP handed Mrs May a devastating blow, with Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson saying there was ‘no pressure on me or my party to vote for this deal’.
The hardline unionist and Brexiteer tore into Brussels, including European Council president Donald Tusk, accusing them of ‘arrogance’ over their offer in an interview with TalkRadio.
He said: If anything the arrogance of the EU negotiators … this arrogance is born of the fact that the EU see us as a bit of a rollover when it comes to negotiations.
But for anyone to say we’ll give you a three month extension if you accept this toxic deal – I neither want this toxic deal nor the extension so there is no pressure on me or my party to vote for this deal, and certainly not on the basis of demands from Donald Tusk.’
It means that unless Mrs May wins a lot of rebel Labour votes a third meaningful vote looks dead in the water.
Theresa May, pictured at RAF Northolt in London today, asked EU leaders in Brussels this afternoon for a Brexit delay until June amid disarray and fury in Westminster. But she appears to have been left disappointed
A likely compromise for France accepting a relatively short delay for the London parliament to finally ratify Mrs May’s Brexit deal is Britain not taking part in key decisions during its last months in the EU.
Raging MPs today branded Theresa May a ‘f***ing disgrace’ after she used her live TV speech to scold them for not backing her Brexit deal.
Mrs May condemned the Commons for failing to back her EU withdrawal agreement and accused them of playing ‘political games’.
The Downing Street address was meant to persuade Brexiteer Tories, Labour rebels and the DUP to back her deal when it comes back to the Commons next week, most likely on Tuesday.
But her defiant speech caused a great deal of upset among MPs who branded it ‘toxic’, ‘contemptuous’, ‘incendiary and irresponsible’ while another called it a ‘f***ing disgrace’.
Tory Remainer Sam Gymiah hit out at his party leader and said: ‘Resorting to the blame game, as the PM is doing, is a low blow’ while Tory Brexiteer Henry Smith says that Britain must now opt for No Deal
Potential Labour ‘switcher’ Lisa Nandy claimed last night that Mrs May had blown her chance to win her and other MPs over
Tory Remainer Sam Gyimah hit out at his party leader and said: ‘Resorting to the blame game, as the PM is doing, is a low blow. Democracy loses when a Prime Minister who has set herself against the House of Commons then blames MPs for doing their job. It’s Toxic.
‘She knows MPs are receiving hate mail. We’re repeatedly being urged to hold their noses to the stench of this deal and vote for it. That cannot be the blueprint for our great country and I cannot support it’.
Potential ‘switcher’ Lisa Nandy claimed last night that Mrs May had blown her chance and said: ‘There’s absolutely no chance she is going to win over MPs in sufficient numbers after that statement. It was an attack on liberal democracy itself. I will not support a government that takes such a reckless approach’.
But Brexit Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said today he believes more MPs will back the Prime Minister’s deal after her intervention and insisted she has a ‘good shot at landing the deal and winning a vote next week’.
The Prime Minister will travel to Brussels today to ask for an extension until the end of June to try to get her plan through, arriving at around noon.
She is rumoured to be addressing EU leaders at around 3pm.
Jeremy Hunt: There’s no guarantee the PM can bring back her vote
Jeremy Hunt, pictured leaving the Commons last night, suggested it is not guaranteed Mrs may will try to get her Brexit deal through parliament for a third time next week
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he does not know if Theresa May’s Brexit deal will be brought back to Parliament next week, as he warned of ‘extreme unpredictability’ if the issue is not resolved.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘If we are in the same situation this time next week then only a very limited list of things could happen: Parliament could vote to revoke Article 50, which is cancelling the Brexit process – I think that’s highly unlikely…
‘There could be an EU emergency summit to offer us an extension and we don’t know what the length will be and it could have some very onerous conditions – they could say, for example, ‘We’ll give you an extension if you have a second referendum’.
‘Again, I think it’s very unlikely Parliament would vote for that. And then we have no-deal as the legal default on Friday.
‘So the choice that we have now is one of resolving this issue or extreme unpredictability.’
Mr Hunt said ‘no prime minister in living memory has been tested’ in the way that Mrs May has.
‘Let’s not forget the extraordinary pressure that she is personally under, and I think she does feel a sense of frustration,’ he told Today.
‘She is absolutely determined to deliver what people voted for and I think … the Brexit process has sapped our national confidence and we need to remember now what we’re capable of as a country.
‘And we need to remember that the economy has actually not suffered in the way many people thought it would and we have a chance now to resolve this and move on, to close this chapter, move on to the next chapter.
‘And we will be able to say, as one of the oldest parliamentary democracies in the world, that we were faced with a very difficult decision – a decision that most of the political establishment didn’t want to go ahead – and we’ve delivered it because we are a country where we do what the people say.’