EU tells Britain: There will be no renegotiation of Brexit deal [View all]

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Source: Reuters

Brexit
May 28, 2019 / 2:46 AM / Updated 2 hours ago

Alistair Smout, Gabriela Baczynska 5 Min Read

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will not renegotiate the Brexit deal that Prime Minister Theresa May agreed, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday, as concerns grew that a successor to May could trigger a confrontation with the bloc.

Brexit is up in the air after May announced plans to step down, triggering a leadership contest in the ruling Conservative Party that could bring a new prime minister to power who wants a much more decisive break with the EU.

One of the candidates, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said it would be “political suicide” to pursue a no-deal Brexit, a reprimand to frontrunner Boris Johnson who said last week that Britain should leave with or without a deal by the end of October.

Hunt, who voted to stay in the EU in the 2016 referendum but now accepts Brexit, said he would try for a new agreement that would take Britain out of the EU customs union while “respecting legitimate concerns” around the Irish border.





Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu/eu-tells-britain-there-will-be-no-renegotiation-of-brexit-deal-idUSKCN1SY0HJ

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The EU, though, said there would be no renegotiation.

“I will have a short meeting with Theresa May, but I was crystal clear: There will be no renegotiation,” Juncker said before a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he believed the risk of Britain crashing out of the bloc without any divorce agreement was growing.