The European Union will delay Brexit until February 2020 if UK Prime minister, Boris Johnson is unable to get his deal past MPs this week, according to reports.
Diplomatic sources quoted by The Times said a delay would be “fungible” as Britain could leave on select earlier dates if the PM’s deal is ratified by then.
A decision on granting an extension to the October 31 deadline will not be made until EU governments have assessed the chances of the deal getting through Parliament before Tuesday this week, according to the publication.
Its sources said the EU’s most likely option is to decide that the three-month extension in the Benn act – until January 31 2020 – is a purely “technical extension”.
Meanwhile, EU diplomats and officials said on Sunday that, depending on the next developments in London, extension options range from just an additional month until the end of November to half a year or longer.
This is coming after the Prime Minister was required by law to ask the EU for an extension after MPs voted in favour of Sir Oliver Letwin’s amendment in the Commons yesterday.
However in a move which sparked a major backlash, Boris Johnson got a senior diplomat to send an unsigned photocopy of a letter asking for an extension.
