Northern Irish leaders split on backstop as May fights for deal
Prime Minister under pressure from all sides in talks on border’s future
THERESA MAY faced a barrage of competing demands over how to proceed with the controversial Brexit backstop, as she met Northern Ireland’s political leaders.
The Prime Minister held talks with the five main Stormont parties in Belfast yesterday as she continued efforts to salvage her troubled Brexit deal.
The backstop element of the Withdrawal Agreement would see the UK tied to a customs union – and Northern Ireland bound to some single market regulatory rules – if a wider trade deal fails to materialise by the end of the Brexit transition period.
The Democratic Unionists and Ulster Unionists are strongly opposed to the mechanism, insisting it would create an economic border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Alliance Party – all Remain advocates – argue the backstop is the only way to maintain a free-flowing Irish border post-Brexit.
DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose 10 MPs prop up the Conservative Government at Westminster, led her party’s delegation for the meeting with Mrs May at Stormont House.
She again insisted the backstop was the “main problem”.
“We want a deal which respects the Union and the referendum result,” Mrs Foster said.
“Our message was very simple. The draft Withdrawal Agreement is flawed because the backstop would undermine the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom.
“It is welcome that the Prime Minister is travelling to Brussels to seek changes but she must stand strong and by the commit- ments she made to the House of Commons.
“We want a deal. One that works for us as well as our neighbours in the Republic of Ireland. But we must face reality. There is no ‘agreement’ unless it is able to command the necessary support in Parliament.”
Mrs May heard a different message from Sinn Fein. Party president Mary Lou McDonald said the backstop remained the “bottom line”.
“That has consistently been our position, that is the position of everybody across Irish public and political life, with the exception of the DUP,” she said.
Mrs McDonald accused Mrs May of coming to Belfast with “no plan, no credibility and no honour”.
“We have told her that the British strategy of running down the clock and playing a game of chicken with Ireland and Irish interests is profoundly unacceptable and wrong,” she said.
“We have told her that the days of Britain dictating to Ireland or Irish people, that those days are over and will not return.
“We have told her that the backstop is the bottom line, the bare minimum requirements to meet Irish interests, to protect the Good Friday Agreement, to prevent a hardening of the border, to in some way mitigate citizens’ rights.
“We have told her that pandering again to the DUP is wrong on every level and we have reminded her that the DUP do not represent the views of the people of the north of the island, or indeed the island as a whole.”
Last week, MPs backed a move in the House of Commons to remove the backstop and replace it with “alternative arrangements”.
Speaking earlier this week, Mrs May prompted criticism when she suggested the backstop may be altered rather than removed entirely.
A cross-party group of MPs has been working on an alternative solution with the support of senior civil servants, while Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has been taking forward proposals on possible changes, including the addition of a time limit or a unilateral exit clause.