- The UK will have to take part in the European elections
- This comes after they failed to reach a Brexit deal before the May 23 deadline
Throughout the Brexit negotiations thus far, there has been a lot of compromise and conflict, but there were a few goals that were consistent with both the Tories and the Labour party members, which were that the UK should not leave the European Union without a deal and also that the UK should not participate in the European elections which was stated multiple times by Prime Minister Theresa May even as the discussions waged on.
Unfortunately, it seems that she will not get her wish as it was reported on May 7, 2019, by David Lidington, who stated that the UK will not be able to finish the process before the date of the election itself. The process in question was a claim by Theresa May that the UK would not have to participate in elections if members of parliament could agree on a Brexit plan in time.
Moving Forward
While the UK taking part in the European elections is inevitable at this point, Lidington stated that the government will try to make the delay as short as possible. The original plan was that the UK would leave the European Union on March 29, 2019, but no deal was reached and the European Union extended the deadline to October 31, 2019. While the UK has the option to leave earlier than the October date, they will have to take part in the European elections if they have not left by May 23, 2019, which is the likely outcome.
A spokesperson for May said that she is deeply regretful that the Brexit agreement did not go through in March and understands their frustration and that hopefully, the plan will be approved by members of parliament before the members of the European Parliament begin their session in July, even as the May 7, 2019 deadline to register for the elections has approached.
While that is going on, she is working to try and break the parliamentary deadlock over the terms of the withdrawal, which was the reason why no deal was reached In the initial negotiations and May wants to avoid a repeat of such a situation. The talks have been very productive, the shadow business secretary of Labor Party Rebecca Long Bailey stated, saying that the talks held on May 7, 2019, were very robust, even though nothing had been agreed on while touching the need for the government to move on into red lines for a compromise to be reached.
