Speaking outside Downing Street this week, May said: ‘MPs have been unable to agree on a way to implement the UK’s withdrawal.
‘As a result, we will now not leave on time with a deal on 29 March.’ She said she has written to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, to request a short extension of Article 50 up to the 30 June ‘to give MPs the time to make a final choice’.
The government has failed twice to persuade Parliament to pass May’s withdrawal deal.
Greene, who acted for one of the litigants in the Art 50 case which led to the Supreme Court ruling that Parliament must approve May’s deal, said: ‘As litigators and negotiators we appreciate the dynamics of negotiation.
‘We know that if we simply stand on our rights we will achieve little. There is a common confidence in a process of give and take. The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is an example of what can be politically achieved as long as there is commitment to the process. Unfortunately, that commitment to the democratic process has fallen away as parties in the Brexit debate take sides and refuse to move from them seeking to achieve all that they want by hook or by crook.
‘Our constitutional arrangements have failed. As litigators also know bringing in an independent third party, a mediator, can break the logjam. Unlike the GFA we have no ready political mediator but a mediator is just what is needed. A mediator could perhaps go between the UK and the EU and more importantly between the government and Parliament. Face to face negotiation has broken down, with some parties refusing to be in the same room as others.’
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