French Minister Le Drian Sees No Brexit Delay as Things Stand

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France isn’t prepared to postpone the Oct. 31 deadline for the U.K.’s departure from the European Union “in the current state of things” as British authorities aren’t providing evidence that they’ll offer new solutions to end the Brexit deadlock, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

“They say they want to offer other solutions to ensure the withdrawal,” Le Drian said Sunday in an interview with CNews television, when asked about a potential postponement of Brexit. “We haven’t seen them, so it’s no. We won’t start over again every three months. Let the British Parliament, let the British authorities tell us what’s the path.”

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy is in tatters after members of Parliament voted to stop him carrying out his threat to take the U.K. out of the EU with no deal at the end of October. Lawmakers have also refused to back an emergency general election that Johnson is pushing for.

The situation in the U.K. is creating disturbances, the French minister said. It’s a “dead end” because there is no majority in the U.K. for a no-deal Brexit, nor for a withdrawal agreement or for holding new elections, he added.

To contact the reporter on this story: Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Stephen Kirkland

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