The letter will be sent before May heads to a Brussels summit on Thursday, where she has already promised to seek what could be a lengthy postponement of Britain's exit from the European Union
British Prime Minister Theresa May will write to EU President Donald Tusk with a plan for delaying Brexit beyond March 29, her spokesman said Tuesday, admitting the parliamentary deadlock had reached crisis levels.
The letter will be sent before May heads to a Brussels summit on Thursday, where she has already promised to seek what could be a lengthy postponement of Britain's exit from the European Union.May had hoped to persuade MPs before then to back the divorce agreement she has struck with the EU, but her plan to hold a fresh vote was dramatically blocked by the speaker of the House of Commons.
Exasperated European leaders are now demanding London tell them clearly what it wants, warning that the risk still remains that Britain could crash out of the bloc in 10 days, ending its 46-year membership without formal arrangements.
Michel Barnier, the European Union's chief negotiator, warned on Tuesday that any extension of the Brexit talks would have "political and economic costs" for the remaining 27 EU states."A long extension... should be linked to something new, a new element or new political process," Barnier told reporters, urging May to secure the backing of the British parliament for any request. "How can we ensure that, at the end of a possible extension, we are not back in the same situation as today?" he asked.
May's letter to Tusk would come by Wednesday, her spokesman said, as reports spoke of her seeking a 12-month delay.The British premier is struggling to keep control of the Brexit process after MPs last week decisively rejected her divorce deal for a second time. She has reluctantly accepted that Brexit must be postponed, amid fears of an economic shock if Britain ends its 46-year membership of the EU with no new arrangements in place.
But she said that if MPs backed her deal this week, it might only be a short delay to ratify the text.This plan was scuppered on Monday when Speaker John Bercow delivered a surprise ruling that she could not keep bringing her deal back to MPs without changes. May had previously warned that without a deal, the EU might impose a lengthy delay that could mean Britain having to hold European Parliament elections.
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