- Title: London mulls over December election as EU discusses Brexit delay
- Date: 25th October 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) LOCAL RESIDENT, HOWARD DAVIES, SAYING: "I think no-deal Brexit, people don't really understand what it means and the idea of it being a clean break is pretty stupid in my view. So in my opinion it's effectively putting sanctions on ourselves voluntarily and leaving the largest and most successful trading block in the world at the moment with no plan B. So I'd prefer us not to do that. I think Labour is right in putting down a red line and saying, we really should not even consider an election until this stupidity has been pushed out of court." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING ALONG STREET (SOUNDBITE) (English) LOCAL RESIDENT, EDWARD MEACHAM, SAYING: "I think they're waiting to see what the EU will come back today with, if they're going to extend it for three months or just a short period. But I do think that to get a stalemate ended I think that probably we might need an election or because parliament is not budging, there's so many remainers, they don't want to go either way and I just think to take no-deal off the table is just another way to frustrate Brexit, really." PEDESTRIAN LIGHT ON CROSSING / PEOPLE CROSSING STREET TRAFFIC LIGHT (SOUNDBITE) (English) LOCAL RESIDENT, CLARA MCDERMOTT, SAYING: "I think we need to make sure that we don't leave with no-deal. I think that's the priority of 80% of people in the country, Conservatives included. But I think at this point yes, there's just such a stalemate, Johnson has no majority, far from it, so I think we do need an election." VARIOUS OF CABS ON STREET PEOPLE LEAVING STATION
- Embargoed: 8th November 2019 09:15
- Keywords: brexit december election boris johnson brexit delay european union
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003B2LIUKN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Londoners questioned the idea of a December general election on Friday (October 25) a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded a vote to break the Brexit paralysis that has gripped politics for over three years.
European Union envoys to Brussels will discuss the length of another delay to Brexit at a meeting on Friday. An official from the bloc said the choice was between 3 months and a "two-tier" lag but warned that a decision might not come just yet.
Just a week before Britain was due to exit the EU, Johnson admitted that he would not meet his "do or die" deadline to leave the EU on Oct. 31 and demanded at Dec. 12 election to end what he cast as the "nightmare" of the Brexit crisis.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would wait to see what the EU decides on a Brexit delay before deciding which way to vote on Monday, repeating that he could only back an election when the risk of Johnson taking Britain out of the EU without a deal to smooth the transition was off the table.
Brexit was initially supposed to have taken place on March 29 but Johnson's predecessor Theresa May was forced to delay twice - first to April 12 and then to Oct. 31 - as parliament defeated her Brexit deal by margins of between 58 and 230 votes earlier this year.
(Production: Iona Serrapica, Ben Makori). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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