May’s plea for EU help on Brexit cast as failure at home

Saturday, 15 December 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

British Prime Minister Theresa May

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters): British Prime Minister Theresa May’s attempt to win assurances from the European Union on her Brexit deal was cast by opponents on Friday as a humiliating failure that did nothing to ease the parliamentary deadlock over Britain’s departure from the bloc.

With British politics in crisis, the ultimate outcome of Brexit remains unclear, with possible outcomes ranging from a disorderly Brexit with no deal to another referendum on EU membership.

May, who on Wednesday survived a plot in her party to oust her, asked EU leaders at a summit in Brussels for political and legal assurances that she said could convince the British Parliament to approve her deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out any reopening of last month’s treaty aimed at ensuring a smooth exit on 29 March, though leaders assured her that it should not bind Britain forever to EU rules.

“It seems that the Prime Minister has failed in her bid to deliver meaningful changes to her Brexit deal,” the opposition Labour Party’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said.

“We cannot go on like this. The Prime Minister should reinstate the vote on her deal next week and let Parliament take back control,” he said.

British newspapers said May had been humiliated.

“EU leaders reject May’s idea to salvage floundering Brexit deal,” The Guardian said. “Stabbed in the backstop: EU leaders tell PM to get stuffed,” The Sun newspaper’s headline said.

May asked for political and legal assurances that the so-called Northern Irish backstop would be temporary, and urged the leaders to look at her track record of delivering results even when the odds looked stacked against her.

The backstop is an insurance clause obliging Britain to follow EU trade regulations until a better way is found to avoid a ‘hard border’ between Britain’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

“Over the last two years, I hope I have shown that you can trust me to do what is right, not always what is easy, however difficult that might be for me politically,” May said, according to a senior British official.

May said she believed there was “a majority in Parliament who want to follow through on the referendum and leave with a negotiated deal”, but cautioned that an accidental no deal was possible.

EU leaders quashed a line in an earlier draft of their statement which had held out the prospect that further “assurances” could be given in January.

One person briefed on the exchanges said May was “grilled” by leaders. “Everybody asked ‘What exactly do you want?’” he said. “She had no solid answers.”

Diplomats said May indicated she would want to come back for a second bite of “assurances” with “legal force”, and some said they would be willing to listen and try to accommodate her.

But leaders also warned that the EU was prepared for Britain to leave without a deal rather than risk unravelling its own system of close integration. “We have postponed the showdown moment. It will come back in January,” one EU diplomat said.

With Brexit facing deadlock, former Prime Minister Tony Blair said a second Brexit referendum was needed.