British Prime Minister Theresa May has come home from Brussels empty-handed and without hope of further Brexit negotiations over the so-called “Irish backstop,” with the failure to achieve any kind of breakthrough leaving her brutally exposed.
Plans to work over Christmas on a legal guarantee over the temporary nature of the backstop had run into a brick wall, EU officials said, despite May’s claim that she would be holding further talks “in the coming days.”
Brexit negotiations have focused on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with a “backstop” to maintain an open border on the island in the event that the UK leaves the EU without an all-encompassing deal, as the UK and Ireland would not be part of the EU, while Northern Ireland would remain, changing the nature of the border between the two Irelands.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Brussels sources said that May was just keeping up a pretense that the legal guarantee she had promised members of parliament during a leadership challenge this week was still on the cards.
Without clear evidence that she has made progress, May faces mounting jeopardy in Westminster, with Labour seriously considering tabling a vote of no confidence before Christmas, if it believes the prime minister’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) partners might support it.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday accused May of “dangerously running down the clock.”
‘DEAL DEAD’
“The last 24 hours have confirmed that Theresa May’s Brexit deal is dead in the water. The prime minister has utterly failed in her attempts to deliver any meaningful changes to her botched deal,” Corbyn said.
One shadow Cabinet member said that the moment at which Labour would table a no-confidence vote was getting “much, much closer,” but said it would depend on the stance of the DUP.
“We are watching like hawks,” he said.
Some of May’s allies said that renegade Brexiters from her Conservative Party could throw their weight behind Labour in the hope that a no-confidence vote would result in a more Brexit-friendly leader taking her place.
In Brussels on Friday, EU leaders said they would not do any more to sweeten the Brexit deal.
European Council President Donald Tusk spoke of his respect for May, but said: “I have no mandate to organize any further negotiations.”
“We have to exclude any kind of reopening our negotiations on the withdrawal agreement, but of course we will stay here in Brussels, and I am always at Prime Minister Theresa May’s disposal,” Tusk said.
May’s Brexit aide Olly Robbins had been holding secret negotiations since Monday over a two-stage plan to secure the legal guarantee that Downing Street believed could turn members of parliament in its favor.
However, leaders ripped up a prepared script on Thursday night in which they would have offered both warm words and the promise of further assurances in January.
The prime minister had been seeking a “joint interpretative instrument” that would put a duty on both sides to try to get out of the Irish backstop within 12 months of it coming into force.
Member states led by France and Ireland lined up to reject further concessions, saying that May’s deal appeared doomed to failure whatever was offered.
AVOIDING BACKSTOP
They instead reiterated that they did not want to trigger the backstop and that if it did come into force, it would be a short-term arrangement.
Asked three times whether the UK could get further concessions or legally binding assurances that go beyond the current agreement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered May no succour.
“The 27 member states have given assurances. They are contained in the conclusions of yesterday evening,” Merkel told reporters. “So that is our position, that is what we have put on the table and now we expect Great Britain to respond.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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