Tag: Mario Draghi

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Vince Cable, urged Michel Barnier to stop talking up a no-deal Brexit and instead make contingency plans for a second referendum after the EU’s chief negotiator admitted that a parliamentary impasse in the UK was standing in the way of a deal. Cable said the government and Brussels had up until now been emphasising the danger of the UK crashing out in order to sell a “bad deal” to parliament. But the former business secretary told Barnier during a meeting in Brussels that the so-called people’s vote was gathering support across the political spectrum, and the European commission needed to ready itself for the eventuality. “It’s very clear really: it is a British problem rather than one on the European side.” But Cable, who was meeting the EU official with the leader of the SNP in Westminster, Ian Blackford, and representatives of Plaid Cymru and the Greens, said the message to Barnier was that there was no way out of the logjam, and that the strength of support for a second referendum was growing daily. Cable said: “My main message was that a people’s vote is a very live political option. He obviously had an very clear understanding of what was happening in the UK.” A joint statement from the British politicians attending the meeting said: “With sensible politicians from all parties uniting, we pointed out to Mr Barnier that there is a genuine cross-party consensus that our exit from the European Union must not be assumed.” The president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, said on Thursday that the moment was coming where businesses would have to assume there would be no deal. He said: “If this lack of a solution continues, and approaches the end date, the private sector itself will have to prepare on the assumption that it will be a hard Brexit. We know that the British government has been preparing because that has been reported, and when I asked Theresa May she declined the opportunity to deny it. I want to hear what the commission is doing.” Cable said he did not believe attempts by Tory whips to convince Labour MPs to support a deal or else face a no-deal Brexit would work. “We have a 100 MPs, including 40 Labour MPs and eight Tories, now in support of a people’s vote and it is like an iceberg.