Britain’s tumultuous divorce from the European Union was again in disarray on Friday as the opposition Labour Party declared last-ditch cross-party talks dead as Prime Minister Theresa May’s premiership crumbled.
Brexit talks between May’s Conservative Party and Labour collapsed hours after May agreed on Thursday to set out a timetable for her departure in early June.
IT HAD BEEN REJECTED THREE TIMES
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote to May on Friday informing her that the Brexit talks, which began on April 3, had “gone as far as they can” due to the instability of her government.
“We have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us,” Corbyn, a socialist who voted against joining the predecessor of the EU in 1975, wrote to May.
“Even more crucially, the increasing weakness and instability of your government means there cannot be confidence in securing whatever might be agreed between us,” Corbyn said. He said Labour would oppose May’s deal when it returns to parliament early next month.
The divorce deal, which May agreed last year with the EU, has already been rejected three times by a deeply divided parliament. Nearly three years after the United Kingdom voted 52% to 48% in a referendum to leave the EU, it is still unclear how, when or if it will ever leave the European club it joined in 1973. The current deadline to leave is Oct. 31.