UK request to extend Brexit should have better plan, strategy: French official

It would be wrong for Britain to think the Europeans would eventually blink on Brexit and make concessions that would damage core principles such as the integrity of the single market, an official at the French presidency said on Wednesday.

"Nobody believes it, and I don't think Theresa May believes it," the official also said. The French official added that any request by Britain to extend article 50 would have to come with a plan, a strategy, that would respect EU principles to be approved by the EU side.

"If there was an idea going around that the European Union has been firm on the face of it but today is weak and febrile when it comes to the fundamental principles, well that would not be the case," said the official at President Macron's Elysee department.