London: US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that United Kingdom might not ever leave the European Union despite Britain having voted to leave the 28-nation bloc last week.
“This is a very complicated divorce,” Kerry said on Tuesday, a day after meeting outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron at the 10 Downing Street.
Cameron was loath to invoke “Article 50” of the Lisbon treaty, which would trigger a two-year timetable for departure, Kerry said, adding that there were “a number of ways” by which the UK could reverse the decision.
"I don't as Secretary of State want to throw them out (publicise them) today. I think that would be a mistake. But there are a number of ways,” Kerry said.
London does not want to find itself boxed in after two years without a new association agreement and to be forced out of the EU without one, Kerry further explained.
UK constitutional lawyers have also said that parliamentarians still had the legal right to vote down any move to trigger Brexit.
The US administration has long been clear in its opposition to Brexit. In April, while visiting the UK, President Barack Obama had said Britain would be at the “back of the queue” in any trade deal with the US if it left the EU.
Britain's unprecedented decision to leave the EU has caused a furore across the world, with stocks plunging amid financial and political uncertainty. In the June 23 referendum, at least 51.9 per cent of Britain's people voted for the country to leave the EU.
