Brexit backers to UK prime minister: Don’t delay
Associated PressLONDON — Two prominent Brexit backers are warning Prime Minister Theresa May not to seek a delay to Britain’s scheduled March 29 departure from the European Union if her withdrawal deal is rejected Tuesday. Conservative Party lawmaker Steve Baker and Democratic Unionist deputy leader Nigel Dodds wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that prolonging the Brexit process rather than making a clean break would lead to “political calamity.” The two said slowing Britain’s departure would mean a “costly delay” for British businesses and irreparable damage to public trust in politics. Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford said Sunday that his party will put forward an amendment giving it the authority to hold another independence referendum if Britain does leave the EU. Blackford says the party seeks “a recognition that if the U.K. does leave the European Union that the people of Scotland should be able to determine their own destiny and in particular should have that power to have an independence referendum if we so choose.” Scotland voted to remain part of the U.K. in a 2014 vote, but its leaders have complained bitterly that it is being dragged out of the EU against its will.