May's 'own goal' makes Brexit talks a messy prospect, say EU leaders
UK warned clock is ticking on negotiations after PM's blunder leads to loss of majority
Updated : 16:43
Wobbling UK Prime Minister Theresa May faced a storm of withering criticism from EU officials and politicians, accusing her of an "own goal" after she lost her parliamentary majority less than two weeks before the start of Brexit talks.
Having called the snap poll in an attempt to increase her majority and strengthen her negotiating hand, May now has to tread a careful path between the Brexit zealots in her own party and those who would prefer a 'soft' withdrawal.
Attention will now focus on whether May can rule with the help of the staunchly pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party after they struck a deal on Friday.
The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the “timetable and EU positions are clear”, but indicated a lenient approach when he added that talks should start “when the UK is ready”.
Andrius Kubilius, a former conservative prime minister of Lithuania, who sits on his country’s Brexit committee, said May's juggling act to keep the alliance together made matters “much messier now”.
Furthermore, he said there would be a greater demand for a “softer" Brexit. “That’s an early thought but it depends on the internal decisions of Britain.”
Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, which governs the timetable for any country leaving the 28 member bloc, talks must be completed within two years.
Considerably less sympathetic to May's self-inflicted gunshot wound was Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit representative, who called the result “yet another own goal – after Cameron now May”.
Keeping up his razor sharp observations of the UK's shambolic Brexit preparations he added: “I thought surrealism was a Belgian invention.”
Urging the UK to create some internal stability, Verhofstadt said he hoped the UK “will soon have a stable government to start negotiations. This is not only about the UK, but also about the future of Europe.”
Protracted delays in organising a negotiating position will weaken May's hand, a point reinforced by EU President Donald Tusk who reminded her of her boast that no deal was better than a bad deal when he said: “We don’t know when Brexit talks start. We know when they must end. Do your best to avoid a ‘no deal’ as result of ‘no negotiations'.”