Vote on Brexit deal ‘before January 21’
THERESA MAY will bring her Brexit deal back before the House of Commons “before January 21”, Downing Street has announced.
The Prime Minister has embarked on a whirlwind tour of European capitals to seek reassurances to get her deal through Parliament, after cancelling a vote scheduled for yesterday which she accepted she would lose heavily.
But she was dealt a blow as European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker declared there was “no room whatsoever for renegotiation” of the Withdrawal Agreement reached last month.
Mr Juncker told MEPs the agreement was the “best deal possible” and the “only deal possible”. But he offered a glimmer of hope to Mrs May by saying there was room to give “further clarifications and further interpretations without opening the Withdrawal Agreement”.
The delay to the so-called “meaningful vote” by MPs means that ratification may not be possible until as late as 10 weeks before the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29. But Mrs May’s spokesman insisted she continues to believe that necessary
preparations can be completed within that time.
The Prime Minister held talks over breakfast with her Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, in The Hague, which Downing Street described as “constructive”.
Mrs May told the Dutch PM that “additional assurances” would be needed on the backstop arrangement to keep the Irish border open after Brexit if the deal was to get through Parliament.
“The leaders agreed that the backstop was only ever intended to be temporary, the Prime Minister set out the concerns held by many about it in the UK,” said her spokesman.
“She discussed the need for additional assurances on this point in order for the deal with the EU to pass the House of Commons. The Prime Minister and Prime Minister Rutte agreed to work together to find a way through.”
Mrs May then flew on to Berlin for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The weekly Tuesday morning Cabinet meeting was postponed because of Mrs May’s travels and will now be held this afternoon, when preparations for a no-deal Brexit will be on the agenda.
Mrs May will then return to Brussels tomorrow for the two-day European Council summit, though it was unclear whether she would be invited to join leaders of the other 27 member states when they discuss Brexit.
Mrs May’s move to abandon a crunch Commons vote, scheduled for yesterday, on her Brexit deal drew howls of condemnation from the opposition as well as a number of Tories.
Leading Conservative Brexiteer Steve Baker suggested that that PM had a “duty” to stand down in order for a new leader to deliver EU withdrawal.