According to The Independent, British Prime Minister Theresa May has decided not to proceed with the emergency Monday meeting after resistance in her cabinet and in Brussels threatened to derail the path to an agreement.
"I really can't believe it but this government seems to be on the verge of total surrender […] I want you to savor the full horror of this capitulation […] We are on the verge of signing up for something even worse than the current constitutional position. These are the terms that might be enforced on a colony […] The essence of the idea — that the UK should remain in the customs union and the single market for goods and agri-food — is what the backstop entails. And you can be absolutely sure that this idea will be at the heart of the 'deal' that I have no doubt the prime minister will shortly and magically secure," Johnson remarked in his Telegraph column.
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Johnson's statement comes days after his brother, Conservative lawmaker Jo Johnson, resigned as UK transport minister over the deepening Brexit dispute.
The Sunday Times reported that the EU refused to accept the key May initiatives on Brexit – including the creation of an independent mechanism to oversee the UK withdrawal from the customs union. According to the newspaper, May hoped to unite her cabinet by settling differences with the European Union through an initiative on the independent mechanism.
The Labour Party has vowed to mobilize all political parties to prevent May's government from withdrawing the country from the European Union without a deal.
The UK voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016 and is expected to ratify the referendum by late March 2019. Stumbling blocks impeding talks, particularly the Irish border and post-Brexit UK-EU economic relations, are making a no-deal Brexit scenario an increasingly likely scenario.
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