By Joshua Talbot.
The European Union has granted the United Kingdom an extension on Brexit negotiations, as a suitable deal fails to get through the House of Commons by Boris Johnson’s ‘do or die’ October 31st deadline.
It was announced on Monday October 28 that the EU would allow for a Brexit ‘flextention’ until the January 31, with opportunities for the UK to leave the EU beforehand, as and when a deal is passed.
The decision was made public in a tweet by President of the European Council, Donald Tusk which read: ‘The EU27 has agreed that it will accept the UK’s request for a #Brexit flextension until 31 January 2020. The decision is expected to be formalised through a written procedure.’
The request referred to was made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson who was legally obliged to as part of the Benn Act which stipulated that, if no approved deal was reached by October 19 then he had to request an extension.
The decision from the EU council was formalised on Tuesday with Tusk tweeting: “To my British friends, The EU27 has formally adopted the extension. It may be the last one. Please make the best use of this time. I also want to say goodbye to you as my mission here is coming to an end. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.”
The granting of the extension will allow the UK government time to hold a general election. The Prime Minister hopes that this will tweak the parliamentary arithmetic in a way that gives the Conservative a majority and therefore makes it easier for him to get a deal through the House of Commons.
With the Labour party supporting an early election now that ‘no deal’ has seemingly been taken off the table by the extension, the election date has been set for December 12.
