Brexit: UK said to plan Irish border compromise

BIRMINGHAM: UK Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing to make a significant new Brexit offer to the European Union in an attempt to open the door to a deal, according to a senior British government official.

Divorce talks are stuck on the question of how to avoid the need for police and customs checks on the border between the UK and Ireland, but the British side now sees a path to reaching an agreement, the official said.

The UK’s offer applies to the so-called Irish backstop, a legal guarantee to ensure that the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic remains open and free for travel and trade after Brexit. It would only apply as a last resort in case an overarching trade deal doesn’t address the issue.

Under the plan, which May is likely to put forward later this month, the UK would back down on its opposition to new checks on goods moving between the British mainland and Northern Ireland. In exchange, May’s team would need the EU to compromise and allow the whole of the UK including Northern Ireland to stay in the bloc’s customs regime.

Although the picture is detailed and complex, the outline of a deal -- as the British see it -would potentially unlock negotiations which have been in virtual stalemate since March.

The EU says without agreement on the backstop, there can’t be an exit deal. That would mean Britain crashing out of the bloc in March, and no transition period before future trading arrangements take effect.

Both sides want to avoid imposing security and customs checks at the frontier between Ireland and the British province -- which would revive memories of the sectarian conflict that gripped the region for decades until a peace deal was reached 20 years ago.