LEO BACKS BRITISH PM OVER CHEQUERS DEAL
LEO Varadkar yesterday welcomed the Brexit statement made by the UK government at Chequers.
The Taoiseach said he would give a more detailed response following the publication of the Brexit white paper on Thursday.
He added he had a good conversation over the telephone with Theresa May on Saturday. The Taoiseach said if the UK relaxes its red lines, the EU should be able to do the same and “we are perhaps entering that space”.
At Leader’s Questions, Mr Varadkar added he wants the best agreement on the border, not the quickest.
He was pressed by Labour leader Brendan Howlin for clarity in relation to the backstop position.
Mr Howlin welcomed the UK’S proposal that it would match EU trade tariffs temporarily in order to avoid a hard post-brexit border.
But he expressed concern about the current chaos within the Conservative Party which saw the resignations of ministers Boris Johnson and David Davis and the ramifications of a snap
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general election in the UK. Mr Howlin put it to Mr Varadkar that the UK government made his Government “look positively stable”.
He said: “I genuinely believe a deadline for us for a settlement on the backstop issue of September is infinitely more to our advantage than leaving it in a general pot of issues to be determined in October.”
Mr Varadkar replied: “Of course I want to have an agreement as soon as possible but I am not going to make concessions in order to get an agreement as soon as possible.
“I want to get the best agreement, and if that takes a bit longer, then so be it.”
The Taoiseach added “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”, and therefore even if an earlier agreement on the border was reached, he does not expect it would be signed off until the deadline in October.
I want to get the best agreement on the border not the quickest LEO VARADKAR
DAIL
THERESA May held a fragile grip on power last night after two more top Tories quit over her Brexit plan.
Party vice-chairs Ben Bradley and Maria Caulfield walked out, both warning the PM her strategy would mean Jeremy Corbyn being elected.
Mr Bradley, exposed by the Mirror last year when he called for jobless people to have vasectomies, said he feared Mrs May’s Chequers deal would be “the worst of all worlds”.
And Ms Caulfield, the party’s vice chair for women who has called for a reduction in abortion time limits, added: “This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party. The direct consequences of that will be Prime Minister Corbyn.”
Mrs May’s reshuffle – forced by the resignations of Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – promoted seven men to senior positions, despite concerns over their suitability.
Justin Tomlinson was made a Pensions minister despite having been suspended from the House.
New Attorney General Geoffrey Cox once failed to declare more than €450,000 in earnings by a deadline.
Kit Malthouse, new Housing Minister, once vowed to make life uncomfortable for the homeless and Dominic Raab, Brexit Secretary, called feminists “obnoxious bigots”.
And the new Digital and Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright has not tweeted since 2015.