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| Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May offered to work with opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (AFP Photo/Jack Taylor) |
London (AFP) - Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday she would ask the EU to again delay Brexit to avoid Britain crashing out of the bloc next week, signalling she could accept a closer relationship with Europe to break months of political deadlock.
After more
than seven hours of talks with her ministers, May said she would request a
delay that was "as short as possible and which ends when we pass a
deal" through the British parliament.
In a move
likely to enrage the Brexit-supporting wing of her Conservative party, she also
offered to work with opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who favours closer
ties with the European Union.
"This
is a decisive moment in the story of these islands. And it requires national
unity to deliver the national interest," May said in a televised address.
Brussels
has set Britain an April 12 deadline to either pass the divorce deal it agreed
with May four months ago, settle on an alternative, or depart the EU without an
agreement.
In reality,
the deadline is even closer as the EU has called an emergency leaders summit
for April 10.
EU
president Donald Tusk responded cautiously to May's statement, saying:
"Even if, after today, we don't know what the end result will be, let us
be patient."
Break the logjam
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The EU has
called an emergency summit for April 10 to agree on the next
steps (AFP
Photo/ISABEL INFANTES)
|
Break the logjam
Britain
voted by 52 to 48 percent to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, but the exit
process has only exacerbated divisions among the public and politicians,
including May's cabinet.
Her
statement follows weeks of turmoil, in which MPs rejected her divorce deal
three times, but were unable to come up with their own plan.
"Today
I am taking action to break the logjam," she said.
She noted
calls in her own party for Britain to simply end its 46-year-old membership of
the bloc without any agreement with the EU, but she said that "leaving
with a deal is the best solution".
May said
she believed her existing plan was still necessary for an orderly Brexit, but
offered to talk to Labour about a new plan for future trade ties.
Corbyn has
called for a new customs union with the EU and access to the bloc's single
market, two things that until now, May has strongly opposed.
If they
could agree on a plan that MPs supported, the prime minister said she hoped to
take it to the Brussels summit next week.
If not, she promised to allow MPs to direct what she does, expressing hope that Britain could still leave with a deal before May 22, so it did not have to take part in European Parliament elections.
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Jeremy
Corbyn favours closer ties with the European Union (AFP Photo/
ISABEL INFANTES)
|
If not, she promised to allow MPs to direct what she does, expressing hope that Britain could still leave with a deal before May 22, so it did not have to take part in European Parliament elections.
The
political chaos has already forced May to ask the EU to postpone the original
Brexit date of March 29, but European leaders have warned they will not delay
Brexit indefinitely.
French
President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that while he was "open" to a
lengthy delay on certain conditions, it was "neither a certainty nor
automatic".
The EU's
chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, warned that the other 27 EU nations were
prepared for a "no deal" situation, and "it becomes day after
day more likely".
Future
relationship
The EU has
repeatedly refused to renegotiate the Brexit divorce deal it agreed with May
last November after almost two years of negotiations but has said it could
revise the accompanying political declaration on future relations.
The deal
aims to smooth the divorce with arrangements for Britain's financial
settlement, the rights of expatriate citizens, and the Irish border.
It also sets up a transition period until December 2021 to agree new trade terms -- but these are only loosely outlined in an accompanying political declaration, which the EU is open to changing.
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| MPs have already rejected the Brexit divorce deal three times, shredding May's authority (AFP Photo) |
It also sets up a transition period until December 2021 to agree new trade terms -- but these are only loosely outlined in an accompanying political declaration, which the EU is open to changing.
"What
we need to focus on is our future relationship with the EU," May said of
her talks with Corbyn.
MPs have
already sought to take control of the process by holding two rounds of votes on
possible alternative.
Plans for a
new EU customs union was the most popular option in Monday night's vote,
although it fell just short of a majority.
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