A final Brexit deal could still be voted down by the European Parliament, triggering a crisis in British politics, its chief negotiator warned yesterday.
Guy Verhofstadt said if MEPs – or even British MPs – voted against whatever agreement is reached, the UK would fall into ‘unknown territory’.
He said such a situation might lead to a change in government and a ‘new position of that government on Brexit’.
In a provocative interview, EU Parliament chief negotiator Guy Verhofstadt warned that MEPs could vote down any final Brexit deal
In a provocative interview yesterday, the Belgian MEP also insisted Britain would have to accept that EU migrants who came here during the transition period would have the right to stay.
Ministers want the cut-off date to be March 29 next year, after which new arrivals would have to register.
Mr Verhofstadt also suggested Britain’s trade deal with the EU would not be finalised before we leave, but instead hammered out before the end of transition, likely to be the end of 2020.
Theresa May has previously insisted that trade arrangements must be formalised before Brexit on March 29.
Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mr Verhofstadt was asked what would happen if the withdrawal deal was voted down. He said: ‘There will be, I presume, a crisis in British politics. Maybe an election.
‘Maybe after that election, a new government and maybe a new position of that new government on Brexit.’ He criticised Mrs May’s proposal that EU citizens coming to the UK during the transition period should have different rights to those already in the country.
He said: ‘It’s not acceptable for us that rules will continue without change for financial services, for goods, for whatever other business, and only for the citizens, their situation will change. That is penalising citizens.’
Mr Verhofstadt also warned that a vote against the Brexit deal could have potentially disastrous ramifications for the British government
Asked about the withdrawal agreement, he said: ‘I think what is possible by the 29th of March of next year, if everybody agrees with it, the British Parliament, European Parliament, will be the withdrawal agreement. Inside that withdrawal agreement also an agreement on the transition.
‘The transition for example of two years, at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. And the third thing that will be possible is an annex – a political declaration describing, more or less in detail, what the future relationship will be. And then we will use the transition period to clarify this political declaration in an international agreement.’
However, the Prime Minister has said everything must be agreed in one go. Last year her spokesman said: ‘Everyone has always been clear that we are looking to wrap all this up in one single go. Everything will be agreed at the same time.’
Mr Verhofstadt ruled out so-called ‘passporting’ arrangements, which allow businesses to sell financial services across Europe, being included in a deal. But he said it could cover services in some form.
He said: ‘What will be in that part of the association agreement, we will see. Financial passports will not be there any more because that’s the actual system.
‘You need to be part of the single market to have that. What we don’t want is that with this whole agreement we establish a type of a financial centre that is competing with the Continent… by every time lowering taxes, lowering the type of rules so that we create a competitive disadvantage for the European financial services.’