Theresa May has told members of the UK Parliament that “we all need to hold our nerve” with the European Union while alluding to the Brexit delay which several of her inner circle of senior ministers have referred in recent weeks.
Coming to Parliament after non-starter talks with EU leaders in Brussels last week which saw her return to London empty-handed, Prime Minister Theresa May told members of Parliament that — in contrast to a growing number of the wider public — because they didn’t want to leave the European Union without a deal they should support hers rather than voting it down.
Mrs May told the Commons Tuesday afternoon: “The talks are at a crucial stage, and we all need to hold our nerve to get the changes this house requires, and deliver Brexit on time. By getting the changes we need to the backstop… I believe we can reach a deal that this house can support.
“We can deliver for the people and the communities that voted for change two and a half years ago, and whose voices for too long have not been heard. We can honour the result of the referendum. And we can set this country on the course for the bright future that every part of this United Kingdom deserves.”
Referring to the rejection she received from Eurocrats on Thursday, who before she even arrived in Brussels said: “…she knows that the Commission is not prepared to reopen the issue”, May told the House: “…as expected, president Juncker maintained the EU’s position that they will not reopen the withdrawal agreement.
“And I set out the UK’s position, strengthened by the mandate that this house gave me, that this house needs to see legally binding changes to the backstop, and that can be achieved by changes to the withdrawal agreement.”
With just 45 days to go until the United Kingdom is expected to leave the European Union — as laid out in UK law — May then alluded to the talks that laid ahead, remarking: “We both agreed that our teams should hold further talks to find a way forward, and he and I will meet again before the end of February to take stock of those discussions.”
That the UK and EU’s leaders would be meeting just weeks before the UK is officially due to leave the EU to “take stock” is a clear indication of the distance to travel before the Prime Minister will be able to get a deal agreed by all sides. May again alluded to this when she told the House: “Having secured an agreement with the European Union for further talks, we now need some further time to complete that process. When we achieve the progress we need, we will bring forward another meaningful vote.”
Warning that the Prime Minister was preparing to use the extra time needed to get an agreement for her deal — which may never materialise anyway — to delay Brexit, UKIP leader Gerard Batten warned the Prime Minister of the potential repercussions for her party if she betrayed Brexit.
In a statement seen by Breitbart London, Mr Batten said: “It is all too clear that Mrs May is playing for time. She knows that her Withdrawal Agreement is long dead in the water, and she will never get a majority in Parliament to back it, even with changes made that the EU has refused to consider anyway.
“Britain is on course to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019, and Mrs May said that no deal is better than a bad deal. If she truly believes that then why is she still running around looking for the mythical ‘good’ deal?
“I fear that this political paralysis is being used to justify an extension of Article 50 beyond March 29th. An extension would mean a European Parliament election in May, and I can assure the Prime Minister that UKIP, the authentic party of Brexit, is ready to contest it. The Tories will be wiped off the European electoral map should they fail to deliver full and unencumbered exit from the European Union on the 29th of March.”
UKIP emerged the largest UK party in the 2014 EU elections, a key event in the road to Britain getting an EU membership referendum in 2016. While the United Kingdom should not be holding EU elections in 2019, as it would have already departed the European Union before the polling date, if Brexit is delayed even by a couple of months the country could be forced to go to the polls again to select its representatives for the next EU parliament.
The absurdity of the situation, and the fact the vote would come just weeks after the humiliation of Theresa May’s Conservatives failing to withdraw the UK from the EU on the promised March 29th date would likely play into the hands of Gerard Batten’s UKIP and the new Brexit party led by Nigel Farage.
Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.