British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressed ahead yesterday with plans to try to win parliamentary backing for his new Brexit deal even as the European Union began considering his grudging request to extend the looming Brexit deadline.
As the dust settled on a day of high drama in Parliament, the next steps in Britain’s divisive, tortuous Brexit saga became clear. Monday will feature more legal action, more arm-twisting, cajoling and veiled threats by Johnson and his ministers and more amendments designed by lawmakers to stymie Johnson’s plan to have Britain leave the 28-nation bloc on Oct. 31.
In the midst of all this, EU leaders and officials across the Channel were pondering whether to grant the British leader a Brexit extension that he does not even want.
As required by law, Johnson sent an unsigned letter to the EU at the last possible moment late Saturday seeking a delay to Britain’s impending Oct. 31 departure. But he followed it with a signed letter indicating that he does not favor another Brexit extension.
“My view, and the government’s position, (is) that a further extension would damage the interests of the U.K. and our EU partners, and the relationship between us,” Johnson wrote to European Council President Donald Tusk.
Johnson has long declared that he plans to take the U.K. out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a divorce deal, and his minister in charge of Brexit again emphasized that stance.
“We are going to leave by Oct. 31st,” Michael Gove told Sky News on yesterday. “We have the means and the ability to do so.”
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said Tusk would consult with other leaders “in the next days” about Johnson’s request, but most signs indicate the EU would prefer an extension to an abrupt no-deal Brexit.
Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, said yesterday “it makes sense to allow extra time.”
At home, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he believes Johnson has enough support to get his deal through Parliament, but added the government would keep talking with its Northern Ireland ally, the Democratic Unionist Party, to persuade it to back the deal. So far, the party, which holds 10 seats in Parliament, has refused to support Johnson’s deal because it treats Northern Ireland differently than other parts of the U.K.
“We’ll keep talking to the DUP and see if there’s any further reassurances that can be provided,” Raab told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
Johnson’s Conservative party has only 288 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, so he needs the support of some opposition lawmakers.
While the Conservatives are focused on getting more votes, the opposition Labour Party was in favor of a second referendum on the whole question of leaving the EU.
Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer told the BBC it is “inevitable” that lawmakers opposed to Brexit will put forward an amendment seeking a second referendum — something strongly opposed by Johnson and his government.
“Whether it’s this deal or any future deal, it’s got to go back so the public can say, ‘Do you want to leave on these terms?’” Starmer said. “If so, then we do. If not, we remain.”
Johnson’s letters came after another tumultuous day in the House of Commons, which worked in a Saturday session for only the first time since the Falklands War in 1982. For hours, British lawmakers issued both ringing endorsements and scathing condemnations of Johnson’s Brexit deal, only to kick any decision on it down the road by passing an amendment withholding approval for the deal until laws enabling it are passed. That could take days, or even weeks.
While Johnson insists on sticking to the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline, lawmakers are trying to avoid a no-deal Brexit, which economists say would wreak damage on the U.K. economy. Mike Corder & Gregory Katz, London, AP
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