‘I won’t sign up to agreement at any cost’: May dampens hopes of deal being approved today
THERESA May has warned she will not sign up to a Brexit “agreement at any cost” as said “significant” issues continue to block the path to a deal with Brussels.
The UK prime minister said she “will not compromise” on what people had voted for in the 2016 referendum, saying Britons “overwhelmingly” wanted her to “get on” with leaving the EU.
Her comments in an address to the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London seemed to extinguish hopes that the Cabinet might sign off a deal when it meets today.
If no deal is agreed by tomorrow, the prospects of a special Brexit summit in Brussels this month will recede sharply,
further reducing Mrs May’s chances of getting a vote in parliament before Christmas.
Both the EU and UK sides had earlier said issues remain to be settled, despite weekend talks that went on into the early hours of yesterday.
Downing Street said reports that Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier expected the “parameters” of a deal to be presented to ministers for approval at their regular weekly meeting should be taken “with a bucket of salt”.
Officials from both sides were engaged in talks in Brussels that began on Sunday and lasted until 2.45am yesterday, but failed to produce a decisive breakthrough.
Mr Barnier told ministers from the 27 remaining EU nations at a meeting of the general affairs council that key issues remained unresolved.
All sides now accept this week is the deadline for signoff on a Withdrawal Agreement in London if a special meeting of EU leaders is to be called for the last week of November.
Last week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Ireland would be supportive of a deal which sees the whole of the UK remain linked to the customs union. But he noted that a situation whereby the UK would “undercut us” could not be allowed to develop by accident.
Meanwhile, polls conducted by RTÉ and the BBC suggest that a majority of people in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland believe the UK should not proceed with Brexit if it meant a hard Border in Ireland.
The figure for Northern Ireland was 61pc, compared to 83pc in the Republic. The surveys also showed that 62pc of adults in the North believed Brexit makes a united Ireland more likely, but just 35pc in the Republic felt the same.