UK Conservative eurosceptics fail to agree Brexit plan B - FT
LONDON (Reuters) - A plan by eurosceptics in Prime Minister Theresa May’s party to publish an alternative plan for the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the European Union has fallen apart, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: Brexit campaigner Jacob Rees-Mogg talks to the media outside the Houses of Parliament after David Davis resigns from government, in London, Britain, July 9, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
The United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on March 29, yet little is clear: There is, so far, no full exit deal, rivals to Prime Minister Theresa May are circling and some lawmakers are pushing for a rerun of the 2016 referendum.
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London, September 5, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, said on Monday that a Brexit deal was possible “within six or eight weeks” if negotiators were realistic in their demands.
Brexit supporters in May’s Conservative Party who want a more distant relationship with the EU last week circulated a 140-page draft alternative Brexit plan.
But Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg, head of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, which led the work on the alternative plan, said the full document would not be published. “The truth is that we reconsidered,” he added.
An influential Brexiteer in May’s party, Steve Baker, said on Monday that 80 or more of her lawmakers are prepared to vote against her Brexit plan.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Michael Holden
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