Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council has ruled out renegotiating Theresa May’s Brexit deal at a scheduled summit in Brussels later this week. Donald Tusk said leaders would discuss the agreement struck last month at a forthcoming meeting and that leaders were “ready to discuss how to facilitate UK ratification”. But he warned that the bloc would use the meeting to discuss no-deal planning “as time is running out”.
The Labour Party said it will put down a motion of no confidence when “we judge it most likely to be successful. It is clear to us that Theresa May will not renegotiate the deal when she goes to Brussels, and will only be asking for reassurances from EU leaders. When she brings the same deal back to the House of Commons without significant changes, others across the House will be faced with that reality. At that point, she will have decisively and unquestionably lost the confidence of parliament on the most important issue facing the country, and parliament will be more likely to bring about the general election our country needs to end this damaging deadlock.
Earlier more than 50 Labour parliamentarians are urging Jeremy Corbyn to table a motion of no confidence in the government this week, with a view to the party then campaigning for a second referendum if that fails.
Earlier: Theresa May has declared that tomorrow’s vote on her Brexit deal will be delayed so she can return to Brussels to plead for better terms on the Irish backstop in a bid to satisfy the “widespread and deep concern” in the House of Commons.
Brexiteers urged her in response to deliver meaningful changes, with Iain Duncan Smith calling for her to “boldly go” to Brussels in pursuit of concessions. “We cannot continue like this,” Jacob Rees-Mogg said. “The Prime Minister must either govern or quit.”
Downing Street has confirmed that the government will reject John Bercow’s call for a proper vote on delaying tomorrow’s vote.
Theresa May’s official spokesman would not say whether he was confident that May could conclude the extra phase of Brexit negotiations by Christmas. As a result, the meaningful vote could take place in January, with a little over two months to go get the legislation required to conclude an agreed Brexit through parliament before March 29. The spokesman said that the government was still confident of meeting the March 29 deadline, and extending article 50 to give more time for ratification was ruled out.
Any further reassurances would take the form of an agreed text reached with the European Union, but the prime minister’s spokesman was careful to make clear this may not necessarily take the form of rewriting the withdrawal agreement, the UK’s exit treaty from the EU. It could take the form of revisions to the political declaration or an addendum to the withdrawal agreement.
Discussions had begun with European leaders and would continue this week and the UK hopes there will be further discussions at the European summit on Thursday and Friday, although Brexit is not formally on the table. The prime minister would judge when the reassurances were sufficient from a UK perspective, the spokesman added.
London’s Mayor said that the Prime Minister postponing the #BrexitVote means the only sensible course of action is to withdraw Article 50 immediately. People from every corner of our country continue to call for the British people get the final say – with the option to stay in the EU.
