London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has said that Prime Minister Theresa May should halt Brexit if her withdrawal agreement with the European Union is voted down in the House of Commons next week.
Speaking in Dublin, Ireland, on Thursday the Labour Party mayor claimed that leaving the EU free from its regulations in a “no deal” scenario, trading with the bloc on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, would be the “worst possible outcome,” reports the Evening Standard.
“In my view, the prospect, the very notion, of a no-deal Brexit must be taken off the table by the British Government,” Khan said, before calling on the prime minister to “withdraw Article 50” — the legal mechanism to take the UK out of the EU — “if the British Parliament rejects her deal next week, which is looking extremely likely.”
“It would stop the clock that is ticking down towards a no-deal Brexit, and it would provide the breathing space to decide how we resolve this mess,” he added.
The London mayor is in Dublin to “bang the drum” for business ties between the city and London.
A fervent Europhile and Remain voter who has previously called for Brexit to be stopped, Khan plans to meet with the country’s Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar, who threatened to ban British aeroplanes from his nation’s airspace after Brexit if the UK takes back control of its territorial fishing waters, and President Michael D Higgins.
The comments come after the Government was forced to publish the full legal advice by the Attorney-General, revealing the full extent of the Brexit betrayal.
On Wednesday night, May met with Brexiteer backbenchers to try and persuade them to back her deal ahead of the crunch House of Commons vote on Tuesday, December 11th.
MPs speaking with the prime minister at Number 10 were said to have rejected her proposed concessions on the implementation of the Irish backstop, which would see Northern Ireland held in EU regulatory alignment with the rest of the island of Ireland if a deal with the bloc is not struck by the end of the transition period, claiming they simply would not be allowed under international law.
On the second day of debate on the bill on the lower house of Parliament, Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party MP Nigel Dodds condemned the deal, saying:
“Northern Ireland [would] remain in the Customs Union — not some kind of customs arrangement — and will apply the whole EU customs aquis [set of laws], and the ECJ will continue to have jurisdiction over compliance of those rules. Northern Ireland will treat Great Britain as a third country.”
“How can he [Home Secretary Sajid Javid] stand there and recommend this deal and say it ends the jurisdiction of the court of justice and takes back control?”
Fellow DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr said Wednesday night that while his party would continue to support the Conservative Party in its minority government, they would “rather be shafted by Labour” than accept the backstop.
Breitbart London reported Thursday that the EU is plotting to extend the Article 50 period before the UK’s departure on March 29th, 2019.
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