EU leaders ‘should not listen to anti-Brexit MPs’

Bangla sanglap desk: European leaders should not listen to the “very wrong messages” from politicians who want to stop Brexit, Downing Street has said.

A senior British official said the PM had been clear to European leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz that the idea Brexit will be stopped was “incorrect”.

Talks between UK MPs on how to avoid no deal are planned for Tuesday.

But Boris Johnson has repeatedly insisted that the UK will leave the EU on 31 October, with or without a deal.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wants to call a vote of no confidence in the government to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

If he were to win a vote, Mr Corbyn plans to become a caretaker prime minister, delay Brexit, call a snap election and campaign for another referendum.

However, his plan, to be discussed by MPs from different political parties on Tuesday, has met with resistance from some key potential allies – including the pro-EU Liberal Democrats.

‘Repeatedly clear’

At the G7 summit, the Downing Street spokesperson said: “We are leaving on October 31 with a deal or without.

“The prime minister would prefer it to be a deal but we will be leaving on October 31 and he is very clear about that.

“He thinks European leaders should not be listening to the very wrong messages emerging from some parliamentarians who think that they will stop Brexit.”

The official said Mr Johnson has been “repeatedly clear that parliamentarians and politicians don’t get to choose which public votes they respect”.

If a new Brexit deal was negotiated, the public would “expect Parliament to find a way” to pass the necessary laws to allow the UK to leave at the end of October, the official added.

On Sunday, Mr Johnson told the BBC the chances of securing a new Brexit deal were “touch and go”, after having previously said the odds of no deal were “a million to one”.

He also said if there is no deal, the UK would keep a “very substantial” part of the £39bn former prime minister Theresa May had agreed to pay the EU in her withdrawal agreement – the deal which British MPs rejected three times.

But, responding on Monday, European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said the UK must honour commitments made during its EU membership, and said this was “especially true in a no-deal scenario”.