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Theresa May digs in heels for long fight with EU chiefs over new Brexit deal demands
THERESA May is digging in for a long-haul fight with the EU over her new demands for a Brexit deal, sparking a fresh Mexican stand-off.
The PM’s allies revealed she won’t even present details of how she wants the unpopular Irish backstop changed until next week.
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Mrs May wants Brussels’ rage with her to subside first, and won’t ask to meet EU chiefs until she thinks they will listen to her.
But tonight the EU also declared it was ready to play hardball with Mrs May and not blink first.
A succession of European leaders blasted the PM for ripping up her own divorce agreement with them to win a narrow Commons majority and keep her deal alive on Tuesday night.
And they also vowed the Withdrawal Agreement would never be reopened.
The clock is ticking down fast on Mrs May’s renegotiation gambit, which one senior Tory MP dubbed her “last throw of the dice”.
There are just 57 days to go until Brexit day, and she has only 14 days to produce results from Brussels before the next showdown Commons vote.
A senior Government ally of the PM’s said: “The EU will need some time to blow themselves out and realise the consequences of their refusal to engage with us, which is chaos.
“So the PM thinks there’s no point in going to Brussels until she can get a fair hearing. That won’t be until next week.”
The close ally added: “We have a tactical choice to make on what to ask for on the backstop too, but there’s no point in making that yet either until we know MPs will support it.”
On another tense day in Westminster;
- Pro-EU Tory rebels vowed to ally with Labour again to try to seize control and delay Brexit to avoid no deal in two weeks time.
- Mrs May and No10 sparked hard Brexiteers’ alarm by refusing to any longer say the PM was still willing to take the UK out of the EU without a deal if she had to.
Berlin said today that Angela Merkel is also prepared to dig in as well as the PM – who prides herself with being “a bloody difficult woman”.
The powerful German leader thinks Britain will need to “look into the abyss before a deal is done at five to midnight”, aides said.
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Mrs May called EU Council president Donald Tusk and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tonight in a bid to open up a dialogue.
But, after insisting again that “the Withdrawal Agreement is not open for renegotiation”, Mr Tusk said he had also told the British PM: “Yesterday we found out what the UK doesn’t want.
“But we still don’t know what the UK does want.”
Mr Varadkar told Mrs May her change of tack was “had reinforced the need for a backstop which is legally robust and workable”.
THREE BACKSTOP OPTIONS
Addressing the Commons on Wednesday, the PM spelled out three options for a legally binding change to the backstop that would allay Tory fears of the UK being trapped in it under EU rules indefinitely.
One is winning a unilateral exit mechanism, a second is to push for a time limit to it, and a third is to negotiate a new backstop altogether based on technology and registration systems that could keep the Irish border open instead.
The third option is dubbed the ‘Malthouse Compromise’, after leading Leave and Remain Tories concocted a secret plan behind the PM’s back for it, drawn up by housing minister Kit Malthouse.
Mrs May was also pressed by opposition MPs on whether she would respect the will of the Commons, who defeated the Government on Tuesday night to insist Britain must not leave the EU without a deal.
A pro-EU Tory rebel who lead the revolt, ex-Cabinet minister Caroline Spelman, said while the motion wasn’t legally binding, it was “morally binding” on Mrs May.
The PM surpised Brexiteers by ducking a series of opportunities to deny that.
Instead, Mrs May would only say: “You can’t just vote to reject no deal. You have to vote for a deal”.
Former Tory Cabinet minister and Brexit rebel Sir Oliver Letwin dubbed Mrs May’s bid “one last throw of the dice” and said he’d be be “very surprised” if she wins any changes at all.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I think it’s much more likely that if we’re to find a deal before 29 March, it will have to be done on a cross-party basis”.
Sir Oliver also said rebels would make a fresh bid to enforce a Brexit delay of up to nine months in two weeks time alongside Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory Nick Boles.
The group’s bid to seize powers for Parliament to take control of Brexit’s direction narrowly failed during showdown votes on Tuesday night.
The government also came under mounting pressure to spell out exactly what changes it wanted on the backstop.
Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay was slammed after refusing to say despite being asked five times, adding only: “Well, that is what we’re exploring”.
Mr Barclay was also unable to say Mrs May will secure a new deal from the EU within the next fortnight.
VIEW FROM THE EU
In a series of diatribes from EU bosses today, their chief negotiator Michel Barnier expressed astonishment the PM “took distance from the agreement she herself negotiated” by backing the Brady amendment.
And he tore into ex Brexit secretaries David Davis and Dominic Raab, saying he found it “hard to accept” them criticising a deal they helped shape.
His remarks came as Ireland’s deputy PM launched a scathing attack on the Tories, accusing the party of making his country a “casualty” of Brexit.
Simon Coveney compared MPs’ demands on the backstop to “saying give me what I want or I’m jumping out the window”.
He said: “What we are being asked is to compromise on a solution that works and replace it with wishful thinking. We won’t do it”.
EU Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker insisted Tuesday’s votes in the Commons had changed nothing other than increasing the chances of a crash-out.
Speaking to the EU Parliament in Brussels, he said: “The Withdrawal Agreement remains the best and only deal possible.
“The EU said so in November, we said so in December, we said so after the first meaningful vote in January.
“The debate and votes in the House of Commons yesterday don’t change that. The Withdrawal Agreement will not be renegotiated.”
Mr Juncker vowed eurocrats would work “day and night” to save the deal but said there was no way Brussels would “abandon” Ireland over the border.
He warned: “Yesterday's vote has further increased the risk of a disorderly exit of the UK”.
Attacking the Malthouse Compromise too, Mr Juncker added: “The concept of alternative arrangements is not new. But a concept is not a plan. It does not offer an operational solution”.
EU Parliament Brexit chief Guy Verhofstadt added: “Unless something changes both the EU and Britain are on course in the general direction of the worst possible outcome of all which is no deal”.
In response to Tuesday’s votes, EU states also hardened their stand on the conditions they will attach to an Article 50 extension.
Portugal said it would want to the UK to “present alternatives to their red lines and the backstop” before considering a request.
And Austria’s chancellor added a prolongation would be “by a few months, only if UK has a clear strategy”.
But Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki, who spoke on the phone to Mrs Merkel on Wednesday, issued a coded plea to other EU members states for compromise.
After the call he said: “Acting together, with all EU members states, we should do our best to avoid hard Brexit.
“We are waiting for Theresa May’s government to present their proposals to the EU.”
TORIES SPLIT OVER PLAN C
The fragile Tory unity over Brexit after Tuesday’s Commons victory began to splinter tonight when a Cabinet minister attacked the new plan devised by its leading Leaver and Remainer MPs.
Business Secretary Greg Clark said the ‘Malthouse Compromise’ for a different Irish backstop was not feasible.
Having studied the technology it would need to keep the border open last year, Mr Clark said: “I can’t see that those technical possibilities are there yet”.
Pro-EU Mr Clark also opened the door instead to a customs union with the EU as an alternative solution to the Irish border dilemma.
Asked if he’d vote for a customs union, Mr Clark said: “I’d want to see what proposals were there”.
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EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier says backstop is a 'realistic solution' but Brexit agreement will 'not be renegotiated'
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