May pleas for MPS backing or face UK being plunged into crisis
Warning sounds as EU negotiator says UK would be able to leave customs union
Theresa May has issued a plea for support as the showdown on her Brexit deal looms as the EU’S chief negotiator revealed the reassurances he has offered the UK over the controversial issue of the Irish backstop.
The Prime Minister warned the UK would be plunged into crisis if MPS reject her withdrawal agreement in a stark message delivered ahead of Tuesday’s Commons vote.
She said “no-one knows” what would happen if her plan was defeated, with the possibility of Brexit being derailed completely.
Her speech followed talks involving and EU negotiator Michel Barnier, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay.
In a series of messages on Twitter, Mr Barnier said the EU had proposed a “legally binding interpretation” of the withdrawal agreement.
The arbitration panel envisaged the deal would give the UK the right to a “proportionate suspension of its obligations under the backstop, as a last resort” if the EU breached its obligations to use “best endeavours” and act in “good faith” to negotiate alternative solutions.
The EU was ready to give “legal force” to the commitments made in January’s letter from Donald Tusk and Jean-claude Juncker, writing them into a “joint interpretative statement”.
The UK would also be given the option to exit the single customs territory unilaterally “while the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border”.
“UK will not be forced into customs union against its will,” Mr Barnier wrote.
He promised the EU would continue working intensively over coming days to make sure the UK leaves with a deal.
Mrs May said both the democratic and economic cases for backing her deal were “clear” and issued a plea to MPS: “Let’s get it done.”
Sheusedherspeechinleavesupporting Grimsby yesterday to call on Tory Eurosceptics to recognise that failure to back the deal could result in a softer Brexit or another referendum.
“Next week, MPS in Westminster face a crucial choice – whether to back the Brexit deal or to reject it,” she said. “Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and noone knows what will happen.”
Mrs May also sent a message of warning to hardline Brexiteers considering voting against her deal next week.
Any delay to the withdrawal agreement could lead to “a form of Brexit that does not match up to what people voted for” or to a second referendum, she said.
The Prime Minister accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of supporting “a divisive second referendum that would take the UK right back to square one”.
newsdeskts@scotsman.com