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Brexit: France and Germany split as EU leaders debate length of further article 50 extension - live news
EU leaders agree to delay Brexit until 31 October – live news
(about 1 hour later)
This is from the FT’s Mehreen Khan.
Some of you may be wondering whether, under the terms of the Yvette Cooper bill (the one passed on Monday, against the wishes of the government, requiring the PM to request an article 50 extension) Theresa May has to come back to the Commons and get MPs to agree the new article 50 extension timetable, given that it is different from the one MPs voted to support on Tuesday.
New: looks like we are getting towards a date for extension 31st of October #euco
The answer is no. The bill, as originally drafted, would have required a second vote in the Commons in these circumstances. But when the bill was in the Lords an amendment passed by Lord Goldsmith, the Labour peer, removed this requirement. Goldsmith argued that it would create uncertainty, because the PM could end up agreeing a new date at the EU summit and then needing to obtain retrospective backing for it in the Commons.
From the Telegraph’s Peter Foster
From the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope:
Per EU source. France is isolated. 4 Member states unspecified. Greeks backing long XT to Mar 2020 arguing holding EP elections will be humiliation for Brexiteers...and maybe the beginning of end of Brexit itself.
Members of the 1922 tell me PM will be gone by late May. One says: “If we are in the European elections the calls on her to resign will be massive. Even her supporters would say she is a dead duck. Then we will be into a position of runners and riders and a new leader by July.”
After a short break, at the end of what was effectively the first round of talks in the EU27 meeting, EU leaders are now back in the room for the bit where they have to thrash out their differences. This is from Sky’s Deborah Haynes.
Here is some Twitter comment on the implications of a new 31 October deadline.
And now after some leg-stretching the leaders are back in room and talking again #Brexit
From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg:
From my colleague Jennifer Rankin
1. Does October really make a difference? Theoretically allows May to wrap up phase one before Tories officially have another chance to oust her
Another date thrown into the mix at the Brexit summit — 23 June 2019. At least one player at summit table likes neat endings.
2. But it's not clear that it's enough of a delay really to have a significant go at a new approach - nor is it short enough to apply a tight deadline to achieve unlikely success in cross party talks
23 June 2019 would be the third anniversary of the referendum.
3. Most important thing tonight is that UK is NOT leaving on Friday without a deal - but will malcontents in Tory party think October deadline is a big enough window to try to move the PM out, have a leadership contest and install a new leader with a different tack
John Whittingdale, the Tory Brexiter, also told Peston that the Conservatives would pay a price at the local elections for the “huge anger” that people feel about the fact that Brexit has been delayed.
4. It is enough time for a leadership contest - minister already in touch to say it's enough time to start competition after Easter, install new leader by early summer, PM stays on for now in name only, with new leader in place within months
.@JWhittingdale says he fears his party could pay the price if European Parliament elections are held in the UK next month. #Peston pic.twitter.com/8O8F9ooYCv
From my colleague Rowena Mason:
Theresa May may be planning to stay in office until her Brexit deal has passed (see 10.28pm), but John Whittingdale, the Tory Brexiter and former cabinet minister, has just told ITV’s Peston that “more and more” of his colleague now think it is time for a new leader.
6 months is quite a tight timetable to replace May as Tory leader and then call a general election to gain mandate for "reset" Brexit strategy - which is why some Eurosceptics were increasingly attracted to a year https://t.co/EtmyhuFdb3
From Politico Europe’s Lili Bayer
From the Sun’s Steve Hawkes:
Some officials are far from happy with how the discussion is evolving. “We are hostages of small group of mainly Francophones doing it for purely domestic show,” said one senior official. https://t.co/xfwnK9fn6o
Brexit used to be March 29But EU leaders now setting October 31 as new deadlineLong enough for a referendum, but not long enough for new leader to come in and renegotiate etcOne Tory just said: "Remain has won"
Sophie in ’t Veld, a Dutch MEP and deputy to the European parliament’s lead Brexit spokesman, Guy Verhofstadt, told BBC’s Newsnight that MEPs were worried about the UK being a disruptive influence if it gets a long article 50 extension. She said:
This is from the Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat.
It cannot be that we will be held hostage by the UK for who knows, months, maybe a few years even.
A #Brexit extension until 31 October is sensible since it gives time to UK to finally choose its way. The review in June will allow #EUCO to take stock of the situation -JM
We need to be absolutely sure that the UK is not going to disrupt the work of the European Union. And there is a big question mark of course. Some government leaders have said that we can just have a code of conduct and ask the UK to not disrupt the European Union.
Here is footage of Theresa May arriving back at the summit HQ to be briefed on what the EU27 have decided to offer.
And then the question is, how reliable would a pledge be from the United Kingdom that they are not going to do that? Because legally speaking, as long as the UK is a member you have full voting rights and there is absolutely no guarantee.
Arrival of #UK @theresa_may rejoining the special #EUCO #Article50 meeting, taking place on 10 April 2019, in #Brussels. #Brexit #extension https://t.co/43rqRMULKh
Tweets by people like Jacob Rees-Mogg for example [see 10.35pm], that if we stay in the European Union that we disrupt things, it doesn’t create an atmosphere of trust here.
The Telegraph’s Peter Foster has more about how Emmanuel Macron’s intransigence has gone down badly with EU officialdom.
From the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge
EU diplomat despairs at the logic of Oct 31 extension - an ugly midpoint between Macron and Merkel, driving by healing Franco-German gap rather than rational approach to #Brexit issue. Fury at FR "Tonight's summit was not about the UK but about France"
Emmanuel Macron spoke at the end of the first roundtable of EU leaders this evening. He told them he’s ‘in favour of a short extension, and only a short one’ according to a source. Huge gap with most other Member States including Germany. We’re in for a long night...
According to the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge, some EU officials have not been impressed by Emmanuel Macron’s conduct tonight.
This is from the BBC’s Adam Fleming.
So a compromise has been reached. Extension to Oct 31, with a review point in June where UK's compliance with conditions (especially holding EU elections) can be checked. Macron, who stood starkly alone for much of the discussion, has lost some respect among EU diplomats tonight.
UPDATE: SEVENTEEN countries spoke in favour of a long #Brexit extension. 1 for short. 3 open, leaning towards short according to @eucopresident upsum in the summit rooms
Nothing is ever simple in Brexit. As the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg points out, faced with a choice between a short article 50 extension and a long one, the EU has settled for neither – or something in between.
These are from the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar.
If it's end of Oct with review at end of June, does that count as short or long? Longer than PM wanted, but shorter than she expected - surely not another classic EU fudge?
EU source on Macron: "He is in a bit of a schizophrenic situation - (his) domestic audience demands that he is tough on Britain for historic reasons. On the other hand, France is among the most-hit in any no-deal Brexit. It will take hours before we pull him down from his tree."
It’s official. This is from Donald Tusk, the president of the European council.
So Macron may end up being the one who gets the UK what it wants but is doing it to be tough on us. I'm not sure I understand EU politics.
EU27 has agreed an extension of Art. 50. I will now meet PM @theresa_may for the UK government's agreement. #Brexit
This is from Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory Brexiter, responding to a New York Times article about the German Europe minister, Michael Roth, criticising Rees-Mogg for saying the UK would be disruptive if forced to stay in the EU.
From Sky’s Lewis Goodall
A Eurocrat thinks it is out of order to stand up for democracy, it is typical of their high handed approach and encourages us to be difficult.https://t.co/bYVHCPYnux
If October 31st is the new Brexit date then, according to what the @ElectoralCommUK told me last week, there is *just* enough time for a referendum, if parliament were so minded.
Theresa May is now having dinner with her team in a discreet location away from the Justus Lipsius building where the 27 are arguing over the length of the article 50 extension while eating warm scallop salad, cod with shrimps and an iced macademia nut parfait.
One consequence of any decision to grant a longer delay to Brexit is likely to be that she attempts to cling on as leader for even longer.
Some Tory MPs, such as Peter Bone, have questioned if she should now stand down after saying she would not “as prime minister” entertain a delay longer than June 30. (See 4.02pm.)
On the 20th March, at PMQs, I asked the PM about an extension to Article 50. She said “As Prime Minister, I could not consider a delay further beyond the 30th June.” So, if the PM intends to keep her word, can we expect her resignation later tonight?
But Tory sources are clear that she has abandoned her position that she could not support a long delay, saying she would accept an extension as long as it has a break clause if her withdrawal deal passes.
In contrast, May has not dropped her pledge to stay on for as long as the first phase of EU negotiations last and carry on attempting to pass her withdrawal agreement for as long as it takes. In practice, this could be nine months or a year if the EU grant a lengthy extension.
This is what a senior Tory source says:
When she made the announcement at the 1922 [Committee] and in front of parliament that she was prepared to stand down as prime minister once we had completed phase one of the negotiations and for there to be a new leadership in place for phase two, effectively that is the ratification of the withdrawal agreement. That remains the case.
She understands that the Conservative party feels a sense that new leadership is required for the second phase of negotiations. That was the commitment she gave to her parliamentary colleagues and that’s one she stands by.
Conservative MPs may try take matters out of her hands and attempt to force her out. But their hands are somewhat tied by the rules of the 1922 Committee that mean she cannot face a challenge within 12 months of the previous one - in December last year.
