Assurances on backstop fail to win over Tory rebels and DUP allies
ASSURANCES OVER the backstop received from the European Union on Monday failed to win over significant numbers of the deal’s critics among the Tories and their DUP allies.
Confirming that the 10 DUP MPs will not back the PM’s deal, party leader Arlene Foster told a press conference in London yesterday: “We said to the Prime Minister she had to get rid of the backstop and get a Withdrawal Agreement that can be lived with. I don’t think she even asked to get rid of the backstop.”
Ms Foster was joined at the ‘A Better Deal’ press conference by two former Brexit Secretaries, Dominic Raab and Haltemprice and Howden MP David Davis.
Mr Davis wrote on Twitter that Mrs May was wrong to claim the only choice was between her deal, no deal and no Brexit.
He argued that the EU had always been willing to offer a ‘Canada+++’ deal, an agreement that would allow the UK to leave the EU institutions, end freedom of movement and strike new trade deals elsewhere in the world.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said yesterday there was unlikely to be “substantial” change to the agreement.
He said: “If there were still a solution that could be presented under even greater pressure, I would ask myself why it has not been put on the table before in order to ensure that this evening’s vote takes place under better circumstances. That is why I believe that the agreement is as it stands and will not be substantially changed, but that, if things go wrong tonight, there will certainly be talks again.”