UK govt downplays Brexit delay speculation
The UK government was on Thursday trying to downplay suggestions it would delay the country's exit from the European Union.
The denial came after reports that Prime Minister Theresa May's chief negotiator Olly Robbins was overheard in a Brussels bar on Tuesday night saying MPs would be given a stark late choice between her deal and a lengthy delay to Article 50.
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said an extension of Article 50 was not on the government's agenda.
He said it was “not in anyone’s interests to have an extension without any clarity. It is actually very disruptive to the European parliament”.
“They have, obviously, elections for the parliament and a commission that will be formed at the end of May, so there is no desire on the European side to see what one described to me as an ‘extension in darkness’, where there is no clarity as to why we are extending,” he told the BBC.
Robbins' remarks were significant as May has been adamant that the UK would leave the block on March 29.
“The issue is whether Brussels is clear on the terms of extension,” Robbins was overheard saying by a reporter from the UK's ITV. “In the end they will probably just give us an extension.”
“... Got to make them (UK MPs) believe that the week beginning end of March... Extension is possible but if they don’t vote for the deal then the extension is a long one...”