Theresa May asks EU to delay Brexit till June 30
Theresa May, UK Prime Minister has requested Donald Tusk, the President of European Council for delaying the departure of UK from European Union by 3 months and postpone it till June 30. As per the current status, UK is supposed to exit EU by March 29 but the Brexit deal has been rejected by the British Parliament twice thereby giving rise to growing concerns that Britain will have to exit without any concrete deal.
In a surprise announcement made by the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, he stated that he will not give permission for a surprise meaningful vote for the third time on the Brexit plan of PM May. This has led the PM to seek an extension from EU for allowing Britain to come to a consensus on the deal. She has mentioned in the letter that she is confident about the passage of the deal which she has negotiated in the British Parliament but certainly cannot achieve the same till March 29.
May in an address to the Parliament said that she is not looking at a long extension which will involve UK to participate in the elections to the EU Parliament as it will dishonour the results of 2016 Brexit referendum. British MPs had last week voted in favour of a short extension to the Brexit deadline. May has passed the blame on both Bercow and the British Parliament for not letting a deal to be reached. She said that the Parliament has enough indulged itself.
Even the decision for a small delay had come after heavy pressure from the MPs who were in favour of the Brexit. If the PM May had demanded a longer delay as she was looking for, she would have faced multiple resignations from her own cabinet. An emergency was called on in the Parliament by the Shadow Brexit Minister Keir Starmer for reaching a decision on a three-month delay request. Starmer said that the UK Parliament should use the time for reaching a consensus on the current impasse over the Brexit deal. The announcement of the letter had its impact on the pound as well which had fallen by one percent of its value.
