With May not certain to clinch deal, Britons want 2nd vote on Brexit

Britain would vote to stay in the European Union if there was another referendum, a poll showed, as uncertainty over whether Prime Minister Theresa May would be able to clinch a deal on the terms of departure roiled sterling on Tuesday.

With just five months to go until the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, voters would now back remaining by 54 per cent to 46 per cent, the largest independent survey carried out since the Brexit vote found.

Ms May has repeatedly ruled out a referendum rerun, saying her job is to deliver the 2016 vote to leave the bloc, even as her plan has drawn critics from both sides of the Brexit divide.

She must unite her government, party and domestic allies around a plan for Brexit that is also acceptable to the EU, and is so far yet to finalise a deal, with her spokesman saying more time was needed to sort the issue of the Irish border.

Sterling fell after a senior member of the Northern Irish party which props up May's government said the United Kingdom looked likely to leave the EU without a deal. But the pound rallied strongly after a BBC reporter asked Brexit secretary Dominic Raab after a cabinet meeting if it was thumbs up or thumbs down and he replied: "Thumbs up."

The pound was up 0.3 percent against the dollar and Raab's comment sent the euro to a fivemonth low against the pound.

A major outstanding issue in the negotiations is to resolve the stand- off over an emergency fix for the Irish border.

Raab had reportedly demanded the right to pull Britain out of the so- called "backstop" after three months, but Ireland said it would not consider proposals which would allow Britain to unilaterally walk away from it.

Britain and the EU both wish to keep the border between EU-member Ireland and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom open after Brexit, as it is seen as crucial to the 1998 Good Friday peace accord that ended decades of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

While final arrangements on the border are due to be agreed as part of later trade talks, a backstop arrangement in case such talks fail is proving tricky. Britain's desire to leave the customs union is not easily reconciled with preserving the integrity of the EU's single market.

London also wants the backstop to be provisional rather than permanent, while the EU resists any suggestion it could expire.

May told her cabinet of senior ministers more work was needed on the Irish backstop, and that while the withdrawal agreement was 95 percent complete, Northern Ireland was by far the main issue outstanding.