More worries for May after EU snub

LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May appeared boxed in between the European Union (EU) in Brussels refusing to reopen negotiations and recalcitrant MPS in London rejecting the Brexit agreement that has little hope of being passed in the House of Commons.

The EU on Thursday rejected appeals by May to offer legally enforceable assurances and clarifications that the “backstop” for Northern Ireland would not extend indefinitely. She insisted on Friday that such assurances were still possible.

Amid growing ennui in European capitals and London over the prolonged Brexit issue, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said, “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.”

“Rather than ploughing ahead and dangerously running down the clock, the prime minister needs to put her deal to a vote next week so that the Parliament can take back control,” he said.

The withdrawal agreement was to be put to vote in Parliament last Tuesday, but May deferred it to January to gain time in order to try and get assurances from the EU over the “backstop”, a controversial provision rejected by most MPS.

Seeking to hold out hope, May said, “If the backstop was ever triggered, it would apply only temporarily and the EU would use its best endeavours to negotiate and conclude expeditiously a subsequent agreement that would replace the backstop.”

However, the Northern Ireland-based Democratic Unionist Party, which is propping up the minority May government, said, “The PM has promised legally binding changes (on the “backstop”). The reaction by the EU is unsurprising. They are doing what they always do.”