Leaders continue negotiations

LONDON» British Prime Minister Theresa May told skeptical lawmakers on Wednesday that rejecting her divorce deal with the European Union would mean uncertainty and division, before a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to help finalize the Brexit agreement.

May and Juncker held lateafternoon talks in Brussels as negotiators worked to pin down agreement on issues of contention so EU leaders can meet in Brussels on Sunday to rubber-stamp the package.

The U.K. and the European Union agreed last week on a 585-page document sealing the terms of Great Britain’s departure, but are still working to nail down agreement on future relations.

With wrangling continuing on issues including Gibraltar and fishing rights, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday the political declaration on future relations was “not there yet.” He said diplomats would meet Friday to prepare Sunday’s summit, and “they will need to see a final text before then.”

“The Commission stands ready to consider the text and take any action at any time,” Dombrovskis said.

At home, May is under intense pressure from proBrexit and pro-EU British lawmakers, with large numbers on both sides of the debate opposing the divorce deal. Brexiteers think it will leave the U.K. tied too closely to EU rules, while pro-Europeans say it will erect new barriers between Great Britain and the bloc, its neighbor and biggest trading partner.

May fended off a barrage of criticism from both opposition and government legislators Wednesday during her weekly Commons question-and-answer session dominated by Brexit.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn branded the agreement “half baked” — and said his party could negotiate a better one — while Conservative Andrew Rosindell urged May to ditch the plan and remove “the tentacles of the EU over our cherished island nation.”

May replied that “we want to ensure we continue to have a close trading relationship with the European union” after Brexit. She said the alternative to the agreement was either “more uncertainty, more division or it could risk no Brexit at all.”

Madrid has raised objections to wording in the agreement about Gibraltar, the tiny territory at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula that was ceded to Great Britain in 1713 but is still claimed by Spain.

Last year’s EU guidelines on the Brexit negotiations effectively gave Spain veto powers over future relations between the bloc and the British overseas territory, and the Spanish government says it will vote against the Brexit deal if Gibraltar’s future isn’t considered a bilateral issue between Madrid and London.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Tuesday his government “cannot accept that what will happen to Gibraltar in the future depends on negotiations between the U.K. and the EU.”

But May reassured British lawmakers that “we will not exclude Gibraltar from our negotiations on the future relationship.”