The European Union has a message for Prime Minister Theresa May as she plots a path out of the Brexit impasse: Britain needs to decide what it really wants but the negotiated divorce deal will not be reopened.
With less than nine weeks until Britain is due by law to leave the European Union on March 29, there is no agreement yet in London on how and even whether to leave the world’s biggest trading bloc.
Parliament defeated May’s deal two weeks ago by a huge margin, with many Brexit-supporting rebels in her Conservative Party angry at the Irish “backstop”, an insurance policy aimed at preventing a hard border in Ireland if no other solutions can be agreed.
Ahead of Tuesday’s votes in the British parliament on a way forward, lawmakers in May’s party are pushing for her to demand the European Union drop the backstop and replace it with something else.
Meanwhile hopes of compromise on the controversial Brexit backstop seem no nearer on the eve of a crucial set of votes in the Commons, with one senior Brussels official blasting the idea of concessions as “stupid”.
Leading UK Conservative Brexiteers indicated they may not support “alternative arrangements” to keep the border open, while the DUP – which props up Theresa May’s minority Government – called on the British Prime Minister to “face down the stubbornness of Dublin and Brussels.
On Monday, May asked her lawmakers to support a proposal which calls for the Northern Irish backstop in her Brexit deal with Brussels to be replaced with alternative arrangements.
Conservative Party Chairman Brandon Lewis confirmed the move after May addressed her lawmakers at a private meeting in parliament at which she sought to heal divisions and present a united front to Brussels over Brexit.
