Brexit talks stall over Irish backstop

EU diplomats sceptical over claims of fresh splits on plan for avoiding hard border

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The Brexit talks have reached a significant impasse over the issue of the Irish border, UK government sources have said, prompting Theresa May to update MPs in the House of Commons on the state of the negotiations.

No 10 indicated that a deal was being held up by renewed differences on the backstop arrangement insisted upon by the EU to prevent a hard border, after discussions came to a halt following a visit to Brussels by the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab.

The UK has proposed a “temporary customs arrangement” that would mean it adopting the EU’s common tariff policy from 2021 if no comprehensive free-trade deal can be signed before then.

But, according to the UK, the European commission unexpectedly argued for an extra insurance policy of an additional Northern Ireland-only “backstop to the backstop”, which if imposed would place a customs border in the Irish Sea.

However, the suggestion that the EU had surprised the UK by insisting the Northern Irelandspecific backstop would need to stay in the withdrawal deal met with scorn from diplomats in Brussels. EU negotiators had been open to introducing an EU-UK customs union, even on a temporary basis, which could supersede the backstop, in which Northern Ireland stays in the single market and the customs union as the rest of the country withdraws.

AFP An elderly woman is evacuated in Villegailhenc in the Aude province after it was particularly badly hit by heavy rain storms, which swamped parts of southwestern France, flooding rivers and cutting roads.