Brexit: Macron says EU and Britain will decide timeframe for no deal if Theresa May’s deal not approved by 12 April
French prime minister warns risk of UK crashing out of Europe without an agreement is real
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Your support makes all the difference.French president Emmanuel Macron has said that if the British parliament does not approve Theresa May’s Brexit deal by 12 April then Europe would decide with Britain on the timeframe for its exit.
It came moments before MPs on Friday rejected the British prime minister’s attempt to get her withdrawal agreement through parliament.
“The implications of the house’s decision are grave, the legal default now is that the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on 12 April,” Ms May told the Commons after her latest defeat.
Mr Macron said the risk of a no deal on 12 April was real.
“At that moment, we will have to decide on the timeframe to implement [a no-deal exit] ... and therefore we will accelerate the final phase of preparations,” Mr Macron said.
Of all the countries that would be most directly impacted by a no-deal outcome, France was the best prepared, Mr Macron said in remarks delivered as May pleaded with lawmakers before putting the doomed, stripped-down version of her deal to another vote.
But Brexit is now most likely on course for a lengthy delay, after Ms May’s withdrawal agreement lost by a margin of 58 votes.
In dramatic scenes in the House of Commons, MPs voted by 344 to 286 against the deal as hundreds of protesters staged a noisy demonstration outside on the day when the UK was due to leave the European Union.
The result of the crunch vote means that the UK has missed an EU deadline to secure an extension of the Brexit process and leave with a deal on 22 May.
Ms May now has until 12 April to go back to Brussels with new proposals and seek a longer extension to the negotiation process, or see the UK leave without a deal that day.
With a clear majority in the Commons against no deal, and with MPs once more seizing control of the timetable on Monday, Ms May said that the UK would have to find “an alternative way forward”.
This was “almost certain” to involve the UK having to stage elections to the European Parliament in May, she said.
European Council president Donald Tusk called an emergency summit of EU leaders in Brussels on 10 April to discuss the implications of the vote.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a general election unless the prime minister was willing to find an alternative deal.
Additional reporting by PA
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