UK heading for no-deal Brexit on October 31, EU leaders conclude
Britain will crash out of the EU on 31 October unless Theresa May’s Brexit deal is ratified or a new prime minister calls a second referendum or general election this summer, the bloc’s leaders have concluded.
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, speaking at a summit in Brussels, said that there was now “enormous hostility” among the EU27’s heads of state and government to any further delay to Brexit.
He said that while Ireland had “endless patience” it had become the firm position of a number of EU governments that the indecision in London needed to come to an end.
An extension of the UK’s membership requires the unanimous support of the 27 member states. The European council president, Donald Tusk, had warned the UK not to waste the nine-month extension granted in April.
“There’s very much a strong view across the EU that there shouldn’t be any more extensions,” Varadkar said on Thursday. “While I have endless patience, some of my colleagues have lost patience, quite frankly, with the UK and there’s enormous hostility to any further extension. [Continue reading…]