Extended Article 50 could land UK with £100m bill

摘要

The UK could be landed with a £100m bill to host EU elections separately from May's local polls if Article 50 is extended beyond June, the Government has been warned. Ordinarily, local elections on the first Thursday of May would be delayed to coincide with the European elections later in the month, but sector experts now believe it is too late to do this. A raft of legislation would be needed if the EU poll had to be held and the situation is compounded by the fact that a lot of election staff are believed to have planned leave for just after 2 May. Prime Minister Theresa May last week said MPs will be given the chance to back a delay to Brexit in order to avoid a no-deal departure from the EU on 29 March. Wyre Forest DC chief executive, Ian Miller, tweeted: 'Now very urgent that@Numberl Opress makes clear how UK will be represented in @Europarl_EN if such a delay occurs. 'Would be a waste of approximately £100m for elections to be held in the UK for sake of a few weeks. Simplest solution is for @theresa_may to say that, if necessary, @govuk would legislate immediately after 14 March to extend the tenn of office of our serving MEPs for a few weeks. Returning officers in #localgov need clarity!' Another returning officer added: T do not know if sitting MEPs could remain in situ for a short time after 29 March if we delay but we need clarity and soon.'