London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sent an unsigned letter to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, requesting a further delay to Brexit beyond its current deadline of October 31, hours after he failed to secure votes in Parliament for his new deal. After losing the crunch vote in a historic Saturday session in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister ordered a senior diplomat to send an unsigned photocopy of the request for a delay, which was forced on him by MPs last month, the BBC reported.
The Prime Minister was required by the law called the Benn Act to ask the European Union for an extension to the October 31 deadline in case he lost the Commons vote. The request was accompanied by a second letter, signed by Johnson, which made clear that he personally believed a delay would be damaging. It said the government will press on with efforts to pass the revised Brexit deal agreed with European Union leaders last week into law, and that he was confident of doing so by October 31. In it, the Prime Minister said any further hold-up would be “deeply corrosive”, and would “damage the interests of the UK and our European Union partners”. He added that the UK would continue to ratify the deal and urged Brussels to do the same. A third cover letter was written by Tim Barrow, the UK’s Permanent Representative in Brussels, who explained the first letter complied with the Act as agreed by Parliament. Tusk tweeted that he had received the extension request and would consult European Union leaders “on how to react”. (IANS)