Business Day

We shall never surrender:

- /AFP

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May during the weekly question-and-answer session in the House of Commons in London. She vowed to fight ‘with everything I've got’ an attempt by her own Tory party to remove her from office. She survived a late confidence vote on Wednesday evening.

The EU is preparing to give more Brexit assurances to Britain's Theresa May at a summit this week if she survives a no-confidence vote within her party, but sources said the bloc will do nothing now that contradict­s its draft deal with London.

Diplomats and officials said the bloc was preparing a document on Brexit to help May persuade her parliament to back their tentative Brexit deal.

But the document may not be legally binding and would not limit the duration of the 'backstop' arrangemen­t over the border between EU state Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland, one senior diplomat said.

After insisting for days that a parliament­ary vote on the deal would go ahead on Tuesday, May abandoned it when it became clear that she would lose.

The late U-turn led to widespread anger within her party and triggered a vote on her leadership.

If she wins that vote, due to be held on Wednesday evening, she is then expected to meet her fellow EU leaders on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.

"There is willingnes­s to offer her something. But it will not have a legal nature and would not limit the backstop duration," the diplomat said.

A senior EU official added: "What is not feasible is the renegotiat­ion of the withdrawal agreement, everything else is possible. Whatever assurances can be given cannot contradict the deal."

Other than that, the bloc is looking at contingenc­y plans for a no-deal Brexit.

May will address the other 27 EU leaders on Thursday afternoon, and they will then be able to ask her questions.

That is itself an indication of the EU's concern about the deepening chaos in Britain and mounting doubts over the Brexit deal, as it breaks with the bloc's usual stance that no negotiatin­g is done at the top level.

Later - and without May in the room - the other 27 national EU leaders will seek to agree on what the senior diplomat described as a one-page document on Brexit.

May has said she would be seeking "legal assurances" that the Irish backstop - an emergency fix to prevent extensive border checks on the island of Ireland and the most contentiou­s element of the Brexit deal - would not remain in place indefinite­ly.

While the EU has stressed that it would much rather have an open border maintained by a new EU-UK deal after Brexit, it insists the backstop must be part of the divorce deal as an allweather insurance.

"We could highlight to show it is not our preferred option, or our second or third, but our last option," another senior EU diplomat said.

IF SHE WINS THE VOTE, MAY IS THEN EXPECTED TO MEET HER FELLOW EU LEADERS ON THURSDAY

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa