EU Sees No Brexit U-Turn

Tony Blair wants fellow Britons to “rise up” and block or soften Brexit, but it may now be out of their hands as many Europeans just want them to get on and get out.

After their June referendum vote to quit the EU, stunned European leaders insisted Britons were welcome to change their minds. That may have encouraged those like ex-premier Blair who last week challenged Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to launch the process next month and exit in two years whatever the EU offers, Reuters reported.

Yet whatever their hopes of legal obstacles or of an electoral backlash, the mood across the rest of the bloc has shifted. While officially the door remains open to Britain to stay, many on the continent would not welcome a U-turn now.

“This bus has left,” said one senior EU diplomat.

“No one is happy about it. But we have moved on and the last thing anyone wants now is to reopen the whole issue.”

From the European Commission, the Brussels executive Michel Barnier will negotiate Brexit for the EU, some also detect a harder tone, warning against those in Britain who want to pull back from a “hard Brexit”, or the clean break with the EU market that May spelled out last month.

“’I’m a bit in, I’m a bit out, maybe tomorrow I’ll be back’ ... This isn’t on,” Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker chided last week. “You’re either in, or you’re out.”