Members of Parliament have rejected Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement on the day the UK was due to leave the EU. The government lost by 344 votes to 286, a margin of 58. It means the UK has missed an EU deadline to delay Brexit to 22 May and leave with a deal.
The European Union could grant Britain’s request for a short Brexit delay if Parliament votes next week in favour of a stalled departure deal, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Wednesday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will fight for an “orderly Brexit” until “the very last hour”. Mrs Merkel said that current events were in a “state of flux”, adding that European Union leaders would try to react to whatever the UK proposed. The UK is due to leave the EU in 10 days' time, with or without a deal.
European Council President Donald Tusk has said he will appeal to EU leaders “to be open to a long extension” of the Brexit deadline, if the UK needs to rethink its strategy and get consensus. His intervention came as UK MPs voted to seek a delay of the 29 March deadline to leave the EU. EU leaders meet in Brussels on 21 March and they would have the final say.
The Brexit deal negotiated by the Government of Theresa May and the European Union was rejected on Tuesday for the second time in the British Parliament despite the adjustments that the Prime Minister managed to reach in the European bloc.
The European Union opened the door on Monday to Britain postponing its exit from the bloc beyond the March 29 deadline, as the main opposition Labour Party said it could eventually support a second referendum.
European Council President Donald Tusk has spoken of a “special place in hell” for “those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan of how to carry it out safely”. He was speaking after talks with Irish leader Leo Varadkar in Brussels.Brexit-backing MPs reacted with anger to the comments, accusing Mr Tusk of “arrogance”.
France and Germany have signed a new treaty on Tuesday aimed at breathing new life into their place at the centre of the European Union. As the UK moves to leave the EU and a rising tide of populism challenges the core liberal values of the bloc, the new treaty commits wholeheartedly to defending it.
The European Council President Donald Tusk told David Cameron to “get real” over his “stupid referendum” before the 2016 Brexit vote, a BBC documentary reveals. Mr Tusk tells the three-part show that he warned the then prime minister there was no “appetite for revolution in Europe” and he “could lose everything”.
Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal was rejected in Parliament by 230 votes - the largest defeat for a sitting government in history. MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal, which sets out the terms of Britain's exit from the EU on 29 March.