The Irish Times- No deal is ‘a terrible alternative’ says France’s Monsieur Brexit

Alexandre Holroyd, age 31, is the Franco-British son of a British businessman and a French speech therapist. He grew up in the Little Paris neighbourhood of central London. As the deputy in the National Assembly representing French citizens in northern Europe, including the UK, he has become the point man in the French parliament for Brexit.

Holroyd drafted two reports that led to the January 19th, 2019 law authorising the French government to issue decrees in preparation for a hard Brexit. On Friday, he will introduce Tánaiste Simon Coveney’s lecture – Brexit, Ireland and Europe at 27– in Paris.

Since the Brexit vote, which Holroyd like many others failed to foresee, he promised not to make further predictions. He does not know if Britain will crash out, delay its departure or hold a second referendum. But he tends to think Brexit will happen, since both the majority and opposition in the Houses of Parliament appear to want it.

'We have a moral obligation to protect those who have settled here under EU citizenship, which they assumed was for life'

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