May’s Northern Irish allies deliver a Brexit blow
Print Edition
British Prime Minister Theresa May failed yesterday to persuade the Northern Irish party that props up her government to back her Brexit deal, just hours before lawmakers were due to resume debate on the divorce agreement.
May has refused to back down over her deal which envisages close trading ties with the European Union after leaving in March, pressing ahead with a vote in parliament on January 15 that she looks set to lose, throwing Brexit into deeper uncertainty.
May postponed a vote on the deal last month, admitting it would be defeated, instead promising to seek “legal and political assurances” from the EU to ease concerns, particularly over a plan to keep an open border on the island of Ireland.
But the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party said it could still not support the so-called backstop arrangements, increasing the likelihood of parliament rejecting the deal and opening the way for a range of different outcomes: from a disorderly exit to another referendum on EU membership.
With the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit rising, the EU is looking at how Brexit might be postponed and pro-EU campaigners are testing ways Britain could stage another referendum after voters narrowly backed leaving in 2016.
May again on Wednesday called on lawmakers to vote for her deal, suggesting she was confident of getting further assurances from the EU to ease their concerns and offering Northern Ireland more control over the backstop arrangement to prevent the return to a hard border with EU member Ireland.
“I’ve been in contact with European leaders ... about MPs’ concerns. These discussions have shown that further clarification over the backstop is possible and those talks will continue over the next few days,” May said.
But Northern Irish politicians were swift to dismiss her proposals to offer Northern Ireland a “strong voice and role in any decision to bring the backstop into effect”. Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s Brexit spokesman said: “The only thing which could swing the DUP round is if the backstop as it applies to the United Kingdom as a whole or to Northern Ireland specifically were removed from this agreement.”
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