Remainers shouldn’t assume EU leaders will welcome second referendum

“The member states and the EU institutions want the UK out before the European Parliament elections in late May 2019 and the nomination of a new commission afterwards, or Britain would be obliged to take part. The EU has already agreed to redistribute 27 of Britain’s 73 seats in the European Parliament to other member states. France — one of the hardliners in the Brexit talks — is among the countries that are due to benefit from this redistribution. It is hard to imagine that Paris will be eager to give the UK more leeway.” (Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, senior research fellow and Beth Oppenheim, researcher at the Centre for European Reform).