London: British Prime Minister Theresa May claimed to have secured the breakthrough required to get her Brexit withdrawal agreement through a crunch vote in Parliament, Tuesday evening.
However, it was received with caution by British MPs unsure of the legal ramifications, leaving Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) still precariously poised ahead of the March 29 Brexit deadline.
In a last-minute dash Monday night to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, May emerged alongside European Commission President Jean Claude-Juncker to declare that the UK and EU have agreed ‘legally binding’ changes to the controversial Irish backstop clause to ensure any such arrangement would not be permanent.
The move is aimed at addressing the concerns of hard-line Brexiteers in her own Conservative Party and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which provides her government with its majority in the House of Commons.
“MPs were clear that legal changes were needed to the backstop. Today (Monday) we have secured legal changes. Now is the time to come together to back this improved Brexit deal,” May said at a joint press conference with Juncker.
The EU said it had made significant concessions as two additional documents were agreed to back up the withdrawal agreement struck in December last year – a joint legally binding instrument which the UK could use to start a ‘formal dispute’ against the EU if it tried to keep the UK tied into the backstop indefinitely.
“In politics, sometimes you get a second chance. There will be no third chance… it is this deal or Brexit might not happen at all,” Juncker said, issuing a stark warning to Britain’s MPs over the importance of the parliamentary vote Tuesday in the UK.
Ireland’s Indian-origin Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, also stressed that the new agreements were an ‘unambiguous statement’ of both sides’ ‘good faith and intentions’ even if they did not ‘undermine’ the principle of the backstop or how it might come into force.
The Irish backstop, an insurance policy designed to maintain an open border on the island of Ireland between UK territory Northern Ireland and EU member-state – the Republic of Ireland – has been the biggest sticking point for many MPs in the UK who voted against the withdrawal agreement tabled by Theresa May in January, by a massive margin of 230 votes.
The Opposition Labour Party, meanwhile, has declared that the British PM has secured nothing new.
“This deal isn’t the right deal. The PM is giving us basically the same deal,” said Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Kier Starmer, who is calling for a ‘pause’ and more time to consider the next steps.
PTI