EU Mulls Pushing Back Brexit Deadline Until 2020 as Commons Rejects Divorce Deal - Reports

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2019) The EU leadership is considering an option of pushing back the deadline for UK withdrawal from the bloc, currently set for March 29, until 2020, media reported on Wednesday, citing sources in Brussels.

Earlier in the day, Robert Griffiths, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), told Sputnik that the extension of the Article 50 talks and Brexit deadline appeared to be the likeliest scenario after the UK House of Commons rejected the withdrawal deal in a 432-202 vote a day before.

"There is work going on to see how Article 50 can be extended beyond the European elections [slated for May 23-26, 2019]. Any extension can only be a one-off so after the defeat it looks sensible to go for a longer period," a source close to the talks confirmed to The Times.

Earlier, a number of politicians did not rule out the extension of the Brexit deadline. French Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau, for instance, said that it was possible from "a technical and legal point of view."

The UK pound resumed its decline against the US Dollar, which was triggered by the Tuesday vote, just after media reports about the possibility of the European Union extending the Brexit deadline emerged.

The crushing defeat of the Brexit deal, negotiated by the government with Brussels, further stoked fears of a no-deal Brexit and prompted a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet, which it survived in a 325-306 vote earlier on Wednesday.