'We are approaching the position of a hard Brexit' says Donohoe, as clock ticks down to crucial meaningful vote
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that it’s far too late in the Brexit process for the United Kingdom to tell the European Union what it wants in its exit deal.
There are less than three weeks to go until the UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March, so the stakes couldn’t be higher.“As I’ve always said, no deal is not a threat that the European Union or Ireland is making. The 29 March is a self-imposed deadline. The UK parliament can take the threat of no-deal off the table at any time.
“I do hear some suggestion that the vote may be called off in favour of a new vote as a result of which the House of Commons would tell the EU what they want, that really misses the point. It’s far too late for the UK to tell us what they want. After this defeat, which MPs said was based on an opposition to the backstop, May pledged that she would return to the European Union and ask for the changes needed to get her deal passed. Among the suggestions requested by the British side was a time limit on the backstop, or the power to withdraw from the backstop without the EU’s approval.
He said that it was “a dreadful deal on many, many counts”, but added that if the UK could leave the backstop whenever it chooses, that it might be “rescuable”. Throughout this whole process, I’ve been trying to get the Prime Minister to keep the thing rescuable, and at one point in July decided it wasn’t. Davis said that EU leaders were “shocked” after the deal was rejected, and “that the language changed”.
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