When May set the March 29 exit date two years ago by serving the formal Article 50 divorce papers, she declared there would be “no turning back” but parliament’s refusal to ratify the withdrawal deal she agreed with the EU has thrust her government into crisis.Now, just nine days before the exit date, May is to write to European Council President Donald Tusk to ask for a short delay.
The loss of Britain for the EU is the biggest blow yet to more than 60 years of effort to forge European unity in the wake of two world wars, though the 27 other members of the bloc have shown surprising unity during the tortuous negotiations. “There will be no renegotiations, no new negotiations, no additional guarantees in addition to those already given,” Juncker told Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio. “We have intensively moved toward Britain, there can be no more.”
“There is a case for giving parliament a bit more time to agree a way forward,” the Downing Street source said.“But the people of this country have been waiting nearly three years now,” the source said. “They are fed up with parliament’s failure to take a decision and the PM shares their frustration.”