EU chiefs ‘ready to help’ the PM win Brexit vote
THERESA May stepped up her push for fresh assurances from the EU about her Brexit deal yesterday amid reports Brussels chiefs are ready to help her win a crunch Commons vote.
The Prime Minister spoke to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker about possible clarifications to the backstop mechanism.
Their telephone call last night followed reports Cabinet ministers expected the EU to offer a guaranteed limit on the backstop before the so-called “meaningful vote” at Westminster in the week beginning January 14.
A Brussels source described their exchange as “friendly” and said the pair were due to talk again next week.
But senior Tories fear the assurance will fall far short of demands from Tory Eurosceptic rebels and the Prime Minister’s parliamentary allies in the Democratic Unionist Party.
It means Mrs May still faces a huge challenge to persuade a majority of MPs to support her deal in the vote. A Downing Street spokesman said: “We want assurances and are working
qto get them.” A report yesterday claimed the EU was ready to promise that it did not want to keep the UK permanently in the backstop, a temporary customs link designed to guarantee an open border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
A declaration could say triggering the backstop was “not the desired outcome” or it will operate “only for a short period”. A Cabinet source was quoted as saying: “The Commission made clear privately before the Christmas break there will be something helpful coming in the week before the vote.”
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, a Leave campaigner and critic of Mrs May’s Brexit plans, said: “Whatever Brussels offers will not be enough. The whole deal is flawed. It is time to go for a no-deal break with the EU. We won’t be crashing out, we will be cashing in as we would not be handing over a £39billion divorce fee for nothing in return.”
DUP MP Sammy Wilson said yesterday his party still planned to oppose Mrs May’s deal.
He said: “It’s not just because of the regulations which Northern Ireland would be subject to with the backstop, but also we would have to treat the rest of the United Kingdom as a third country. We would not participate in any trade deals which the United Kingdom may enter into in the future.”
Mrs May’s allies claim if her deal is voted down in the Commons she would try again.
In the meantime, she has invited all Tory backbenchers to drinks parties in Downing Street next week to try to persuade them to back her deal.