May seeks Brexit help at Brussels summit

▶ British PM not expecting an immediate breakthrough

Britain’s weakened Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in Brussels on Thursday to lobby European leaders for help after she survived a parliamentary mutiny that highlighted the deadlock over Brexit.

“We need to get this deal over the line,” she told reporters on arrival for two days of summitry, adding that she had “heard loud and clear” the concerns of party rebels who tried to unseat her over the Brexit deal she agreed with leaders last month.

“I don’t expect an immediate breakthrough,” May said, but she would be telling other leaders of the “legal and political assurances” her party skeptics needed, especially over the risk of the so-called Irish border “backstop” becoming permanent.

EU leaders have ruled out any re-negotiation of last month’s package intended to ease Britain out of the bloc in March, but Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, warmly embracing May on the summit doorstep, said, “I really want to help her.”

Nonetheless, pressed on whether the EU would let Britain crash out chaotically without a deal, Bettel said there was no way to renegotiate and insisted, “Brexit was the choice of the UK.”

He added that rather than a no-deal chaos, he would rather Britons vote again to reverse the 2016 referendum.

May won the backing of 200 Conservative Party members of parliament versus 117 against, in a secret ballot that deepened divisions just weeks before parliament needs to approve a deal to prevent a disorderly exit from the European Union.

In Britain’s biggest decision for decades, Brexit has split the nation and will shape the future of its $2.8 trillion economy including London’s status as a global financial hub.

Pro-Europeans fear exit will weaken the West, already struggling to assimilate Russian and Donald Trump’s unpredictable US presidency. Brexit supporters hail it as casting off a flailing German-led European project.

European leaders look unlikely to offer immediate support. A draft EU statement said they were merely “ready to examine” whether further assurance can be given.

The six-point EU document said any assurances would not “change or contradict” the legally-binding withdrawal agreement struck last month after two years of negotiations.

Earlier this week, May pulled a parliamentary vote on her deal, designed to maintain close future ties with the bloc, after admitting it would be heavily defeated in the House of Commons. She has pledged a new vote before January 21, but faces a tall order to convince skeptical lawmakers.

No vote on the Brexit package was included in a schedule of parliamentary business for the coming week before Christmas.

With Britain due to leave the EU on March 29, prospects now include a potentially disorderly exit with no deal agreed, or even another referendum.