British PM May deploys ministers to sell Brexit deal to public

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May sent 30 members of her government around the country Friday to rally popular support to pressure lawmakers to approve her Brexit agreement on leaving the European Union.

The Brexit deal is proving a tough sell, and May is coming under increasing pressure to delay a parliamentary vote scheduled for next week in hopes of wringing concessions out of the EU. With three days of British lawmakers’ five-day debate on the deal over, an analysis by Britain’s Press Association showed just 27 of the 163 lawmakers who have spoken out indicated they would back the deal, compared with 122 who say they will vote against it. That latter number includes 29 members of May’s own Conservative Party.

The biggest sticking point is the so-called backstop, which could keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU indefinitely if the two sides can’t agree on another way to prevent physical border controls between Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU.