Johnson sends unsigned letter on Brexit delay

LONDON – British prime minister Boris Johnson reluctantly wrote to Brussels late on Saturday, asking for a Brexit extension after MPs voted to force him into seeking a delay beyond 31 October.

But Johnson, who has pinned his premiership on getting Britain out of the European Union on time, refused to sign the letter he sent to European Council president Donald Tusk.

The Conservative leader also sent a second signed letter, insisting he was not seeking an extension to the Brexit deadline, which has already been postponed twice.

In a day of high drama in the House of Commons, MPs declined to give their backing to the revised withdrawal agreement Johnson struck with the EU this week until the legislation needed to ratify it has passed.

Having failed to back a divorce deal, they triggered a law requiring Johnson to write to EU leaders by the end of Saturday asking to delay Brexit, to avoid the risk that Britain crashes out in less than a fortnight.

Johnson sent a photocopy of the letter that was contained in the law requiring him to ask for the delay, but did not sign it, showed a copy released by his Downing Street office early yesterday.

He wrote and signed another letter, which made clear he does not want to delay Brexit beyond the end of this month.

“Regrettably, parliament missed the opportunity to inject momentum into the ratification process,” Johnson wrote in the signed letter, regretting that EU leaders would now have to spend yet more time on Brexit.

“A further extension would damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners, and the relationship between us. We must bring this process to a conclusion.”

Johnson nonetheless said he remained “confident” of completing the ratification process by 31 October.

A third cover letter written by Britain’s EU ambassador, Tim Barrow, made clear that the Brexit delay request letter was only being sent to comply with the law.

“I will now start consulting EU leaders on how to react,” Tusk said on Twitter.

Being forced to send the letter after Saturday’s defeat was a blow to Johnson, who has previously said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than prolong the tortuous process of ending Britain’s 46-year-old membership of the EU.

Securing the new divorce treaty at Thursday’s EU summit had been a personal victory for the prime minister, a figurehead in the Leave campaign in Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum.

But parliament – like the frustrated public – is still bitterly divided over how and even whether Britain should end decades of integration with its closest trading partner.

The British government will introduce legislation this week to implement the divorce deal, with a first vote as soon as tomorrow.

– Nampa-AFP

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