The ball is in your court over Brexit, EU warns May DUPchiefFostersaysherleadershipnotunderthreat as she calls on the PM to trust her unionist instincts
BRUSSELS last night told Theresa May to come up with “concrete proposals” on the Irish border for today’s crunch EU summit on Brexit.
Meanwhile, DUP leader Arlene Foster has insisted that there “is no truth” to suggestions of a challenge to her leadership, as she urged the Prime Minister to trust her unionist instincts.
PRIME Minister Theresa May is under huge pressure in both Brussels and Westminster to come up with a new plan to resolve the Irish border ahead of tonight’s crunch meeting of European leaders on Brexit.
She faces a tough reception at the European Council meeting amid demands from president Donald Tusk to bring “creative” proposals to break the impasse over the future of the Irish border.
In London, Mrs May has had hardline Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party threatening to force a no confidence vote in her leadership if ministers didn’t persuade her to drop her Chequers Brexit plan.
And in Belfast, DUP leader Arlene Foster, who has also been under pressure on other issues, dismissed suggestions that she didn’t enjoy the confidence of her party.
Mrs May will address the other 27 EU national leaders at a summit before they sit down to dinner without her.
Officials said they expected the EU leaders to tell her they have little more to offer since talks stalled on Sunday and they will step up preparations for Britain to drop out of the bloc with no deal.
The EU leaders will decide at dinner on whether to firm up a tentative plan to hold a special Brexit summit in mid-November.
But Mr Tusk said they would need to believe that a deal was nearly done — and without some new move from Mrs May today, that belief seems unlikely to come this week.
The key sticking point is the so-called backstop to avoid a hard border in Ireland even in the case of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal.
Last night Mr Tusk warned that the risk of a “no deal” dumping Britain out of the bloc and into legal limbo and border chaos on March 29 was now greater than ever. He put the onus on Mrs May to bring a “creative” solution to break the impasse over the border and said she needed to put forward “concrete proposals” if she wanted to avoid no deal.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said more time is needed
to reach an agreement.
The BBC reported that Mrs May told a Cabinet meeting yesterday that she can’t agree to any deal that would create a new border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. She also said she couldn’t accept an agreement that locked the UK into some form of customs union with the EU indefinitely.
Downing Street told the BBC that none of the ministers threatened to quit at the Cabinet meeting yesterday and insisted Mrs May had strong support.
Mrs May also faces the challenge of securing a deal that placates the DUP whose support she
relies on to make up the numbers in the House of Commons. The DUP is vehemently opposed to any backstop that would see Northern Ireland treated differently to the rest of the UK.
Asked by the BBC if she and the party could trust the Prime Minister, DUP leader Arlene Foster said they just wanted a “sensible” Brexit deal.
“It’s not a case of trust. It’s a case of elucidating what our position is,” she said.
“I firmly believe Theresa May is a unionist and her instincts are very good in relation of the Union. All we are saying is she should listen to her instincts and
not be pulled away from those instincts.”
The Fermanagh MLA was asked if her party would vote for the budget at the end of the month. She said the situation was “very fluid” adding: “We shouldn’t jump ahead of ourselves. We are waiting to see the text that comes forward.”
There has also been rumours of a potential challenge to Mrs Foster’s leadership. However, the former First Minister dismissed those reports, saying she was “confident” of the support of her party. “There is no truth in that,” she said.
Speaking in the Dail ahead of
his departure for Brussels, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the gaps between the UK and EU positions are “significant” and time is running out for a Brexit deal to be in place by the time the UK leaves at the end of next March.
Mr Varadkar insisted that he still believes a “positive outcome” is possible and that a no-deal scenario is “unlikely”.
But he also said the Irish Government has been stepping up preparations for that possibility.
And following talks with Michel Barnier in Brussels, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney made clear that Dublin would not accept a time-limited back- stop. Mr Coveney said: “We cannot sign up to — and I don’t believe Michel Barnier would ever ask European countries to sign up to — a backstop for Ireland that isn’t there unless and until something better is agreed.
“If you set a date in the future when a backstop falls, then it is not a backstop at all, unless something is there to replace it which has been negotiated and agreed.”
Asked whether he expected a special Brexit summit to be called for November, the Tanaiste said: “I expect what will be needed is an acceptance that more time is needed for negotiating teams to re-engage.
“I think there is going to have to be a signal from the negotiating teams that a new summit is necessary before it will be called.”
Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann MLA yesterday rejected comments by the Taoiseach, who was reported to have told Virgin Media: “What’s on the table now is a special status for Northern Ireland which could be an advantageous position”.
Mr Swann said: “Despite numerous meetings with his government, despite the principle of consent being embedded at the heart of the Belfast Agreement and despite my colleagues and I cautioning them to be mindful of the rhetoric they use, it is clear that the Irish Government see these Brexit negotiations as an opportunity to attempt to weaken or change Northern Ireland’s current status as an integral part of the United Kingdom.
“His comments will be interpreted by unionists as an attack on the sovereignty of Northern Ireland.”
In the Dail, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald TD said Mrs May’s time limited backstop “means, in reality, no backstop at all”. “I met with the British Prime Minister yesterday and put that to her bluntly,” she said.