Tusk urges EU to support 'increasing majority' of UK remainers

European council president Donald Tusk asked the EU Parliament on Wednesday to support the “increasing majority” of British people who do not want to leave the bloc.

Tusk told the EU council: “You cannot betray the six million people who signed the petition to revoke Article 50, the one million people who marched for a People’s Vote, or the increasing majority of people who want to remain in the European Union.”

As he was heckled from Brexiter MEP Nigel Farage, Tusk continued: “They may feel that they are not sufficiently represented by the UK parliament, but they must feel that they are represented by you in this chamber. Because they are Europeans.”

Later in the debate, Tusk hit back at Farage's arguments against a second referendum, saying, "the truth is that the second referendum took place in 2016 because the first one took place in 1975. And then a vast majority of the British public decided that the place of the UK was in the European Economic Community.

“It was you who thought three years ago that it was possible to organise a referendum to invalidate the previous one. Then please be consistent also today.”

The European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker added to Tusk’s comments and said “If I was to compare Great Britain to a sphinx, the sphinx would be an open book by comparison. Let’s see how that book speaks over the next week or so.”

Tusk urged his colleagues to be open to a long Brexit extension for the sake of the people who want to remain in the block, though he warned British intentions were still unclear.

EU leaders granted the government a short extension to Brexit but said the government would have to state their intentions before 12 April if the UK parliament did not pass Theresa May’s divorce deal on Wednesday, which it did not.