‘EU cannot be held hostage by Brexit crisis,’ President Macron warns UK

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned UK Prime Minister Theresa May that the EU will not be held responsible for finding a solution to the Brexit mess which Britain finds itself in, insisting they will not be held “hostage.”

Macron, who had been holding face-to-face talks with the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on the Brexit crisis, told reporters in Paris that it was the responsibility of May’s government to come up with a credible alternative EU withdrawal plan.

The French president urged the embattled UK prime minister to table a viable alternative before the EU Council summit, scheduled for April 10, otherwise she risks exiting without a deal or a lengthy delay to Brexit. Macron argued that failure to secure a deal will fall squarely at the door of the UK.

The European Union cannot sustainably be the hostage to the solution to the political crisis in the United Kingdom. They will remain a friend, a key ally, but we cannot spend the coming months to sort out yet again in terms of our divorce and to deal with the past.

On the prospect of the UK requesting a long extension to article 50, Macron insisted that such a plea cannot be “taken for granted,” claiming it was not inevitable that the EU would give the green light to a further Brexit delay.

It comes as May held marathon-long cabinet talks in Downing Street on Tuesday to find a solution to the Brexit impasse with 10 days until the UK officially leaves the EU and with a no-deal exit looking ever more likely.

Earlier, a leaked 14-page letter, penned by Sir Mark Sedwill, May’s cabinet secretary, alerted ministers to the dangers of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal on April 12. He warned that a no-deal Brexit could lead to a recession, worse than that of the global economic crash in 2008, spiralling food prices and a threat to public safety.

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