Prime Minister Theresa May sought Angela Merkel’s support on Tuesday to save her floundering Brexit deal but the European Union ruled out renegotiating the divorce treaty, after May postponed a parliamentary vote she admitted she would lose.
Less than four months until the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, May warned British lawmakers that if they rejected her deal then the only other options were a disorderly no-deal divorce, or a reversal of Brexit that would defy the will of those who voted for it.
A day after pulling the vote in the face of hostility from lawmakers, May rushed from London for breakfast in The Hague with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and then a meeting in Berlin with Europe’s most powerful leader, German Chancellor Merkel in a frantic bid to save her deal.
The message from the EU was clear: It will give “clarifications” but will not countenance reopening the treaty.
“The deal we achieved is the best possible. It’s the only deal possible. There is no room whatsoever for renegotiation,” European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said in an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
In rainy Berlin, a hitch with May’s car door briefly trapped her inside, delaying her red carpet handshake with Merkel.
The British parliament will vote on a deal before Jan. 21, May’s spokeswoman said. If there is no satisfactory deal by then, parliament will still be given a debate on the issue. The British pound, which has lost 25 cents against the U.S. dollar since the 2016 referendum, was up 0.4 per cent at $1.2615, a recovery of sorts after falling 1.6 per cent.
IRISH BORDER
The most contentious issue has been the Irish “backstop”, an insurance policy that would keep Britain in a customs union with the EU in the absence of a better way to avoid border checks between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.
May’s critics say it could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely. Juncker said neither side intended for the backstop ever to take effect, but it had to be part of the deal.
“We have a common determination to do everything to be not in a situation one day to use that backstop, but we have to prepare,” he said. “It’s necessary for the entire coherence of what we have agreed. It’s necessary for Britain and it’s necessary for Ireland. Ireland will never be left alone.”
Germany’s European Affairs Minister Michael Roth said the EU did not want Britain to leave but added that substantial changes to the withdrawal agreement would not be possible.
“Nobody wants the UK to leave,” Roth said. “I cannot imagine where we could change something substantial in the withdrawal agreement.” May, due to meet Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk later, said she would seek further assurances and ways to give British lawmakers powers over the Irish backstop.
BREXIT UNDONE?
As investors and allies tried to work out the ultimate destination for the world’s fifth-largest economy, rebel lawmakers in May’s party said she had to go.
“If we can’t go forwards with her deal ... then I’m afraid the only way to change the policy is to change the prime minister and I really think it’s her duty to go,” Brexit-supporting Conservative lawmaker Steve Baker said.
A leadership challenge is triggered if 48 Conservatives write letters demanding one to the chairman of the party’s so-called 1922 committee, Graham Brady.
May pulled the parliamentary vote the day before it was due to take place on Tuesday, prompting ridicule, calls for a national election and blunt warnings her eleventh-hour bid for changes was in vain.