EU leaders offer little hope of renegotiating withdrawal agreement

European leaders offered Theresa May little hope of securing changes to the Brexit withdrawal agreement, with the Irish premier saying the EU had already offered concessions.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ruled out fresh negotiations on the Irish backstop, saying it wasn’t possible to revise any part of the Withdrawal Agreement without reopening all of it. And in Brussels, a spokeswoman for European Commission president Jeanclaude Juncker poured cold water on any prospect of a renegotiation of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Speaking before Mrs May’s statement announcing a delay to the Commons vote, the spokeswoman said: “This deal is the best and only deal possible. We will not renegotiate.”

The Irish premier spoke to Mrs May on Sunday but refused to give further details about what the two leaders discussed.

“The Withdrawal Agreement, including the Irish backstop, is the only agreement on the table,” he said.

“It took over a year-and-ahalf to negotiate and has the support of 28 governments and it’s not possible to reopen any aspect of that agreement without reopening all aspects of it.

Mr Varadkar said the EU has made a lot of concessions through the negotiation process including the recent review clause.

He added: “We should never forget how we got to this point, 0 Leo Varadkar has ruled out fresh talks on the backstop

the UK decided to leave the EU and the UK government decided to take lots of options off the table, whether it was staying in the single market and the customs union or Northern Ireland specific backstop. We ended up with the backstop in this Withdrawal Agreement because of the red lines the UK laid down along the way.”

He added that the agreement has the backing of the 28 member states.

“I have no difficulty with statements that clarify what is in the Withdrawal Agreement but no statement of clarification can contradict what is in the Withdrawal Agreement,” he continued.

After Mrs May called off the crunch House of Commons vote, Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit representative, tweeted: “I can’t follow anymore. After two years of negotiations, the Tory government wants to delay the vote.

“Just keep in mind that we will never let the Irish down. This delay will further aggravate the uncertainty for people and businesses. It’s time they make up their mind.”