UK Prime Minister Theresa May might be trying to use the fast-approaching deadline for the country’s planned exit from the European Union as a means to get the parliament to endorse a formal deal that will de facto keep the country in the bloc, Gerard Batten, the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), told Sputnik.
On Thursday, May suffered yet another defeat in parliament as lawmakers voted, mostly symbolically, to reject the prime minister’s motion asking the parliamentarians to reaffirm their support for her Brexit negotiating strategy with Brussels.
“Most of parliament does not want to leave the European Union. Now what I have been predicting, and so far I have been right, is that they would delay this whole thing, impede it and then try to overturn it. So Mrs. May will take it up to the wire and then offer parliament a leaving deal where we do not really leave,” Batten claimed.
Commenting on the conditions put forward by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for his party to support the withdrawal deal, in particular, the UK-wide customs union with the bloc, Batten said that it would constitute a betrayal of Brexit.
“If you’re in the customs union you have not left the European Union … [UKIP will] go on fighting to get us out of the European Union,” Batten stressed.
The United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union on March 29. While London has managed to negotiate a withdrawal deal with Brussels after months of intense talks, the agreement has faced a wave of criticism in the United Kingdom and mounting calls for a second Brexit referendum, with the parliament so far refusing to endorse the deal due to the controversial provision on the Irish border backstop. According to media reports, May might present new proposals on the backstop issue later on Wednesday. (UNI)
May using looming Brexit date to push through deal de facto keeping UK in EU
