Brexit Plan B: return to EU to ask for backstop tweaks
UK Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament today she intends to discuss tweaks of the ‘Northern Ireland backstop’ with colleagues including the DUP that helps prop up her government, before going back to the EU to ask for modifications to the Brexit deal.
However she said she would not be seeking to change the Belfast Agreement which brought to an end the conflict in Northern Ireland and which requires there to be no hard border, unlike some media speculation to the contrary.
She said there had been calls from some MPs on both sides of the House to rule out a no-deal, but she said this was only possible if MPs agree on a deal with the EU, which she is seeking to achieve, or if article 50 is revoked. Others say we should extend article 50, she said, however the EU would be unlikely to agree without a plan for how we will approve a deal.
“So when people say rule out no-deal, the consequence of that is that if we in Parliament cannot approve a deal, we should revoke article 50; I believe this would go against the referendum result.”
As for the uncertainties facing EU citizens in the UK and Britons abroad in the EU, she reiterated promises to safeguard the residency rights of EU citizens and to allow them to maintain ‘broadly’ the same rights in other areas. She announced she would waive the £65 fee for obtaining ‘settled status’ – having to pay to stay in their homes has been among the objections of the3million group that represents EU citizens living abroad in the UK.
She said she would also step up efforts to try to ensure that other countries also agree to guarantee Britons’ rights in a no-deal scenario, as she said some already have.
Mrs May said all the Opposition leaders she has spoken to so far in cross-party talks, and some back-benchers, support a second referendum, but she does not believe there would be a majority in the House for that. “Our duty is to implement the result of the first one,” she said.
She added: “It would require an extension of article 50, we would very likely have to return a new set of MEPs to the European Parliament in May and I also believe there has not yet been enough recognition of how it could damage social cohesion by undermining faith in our democracy.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had refused to attend the talks with Mrs May, called on her again to rule out the no-deal scenario, on which he said the government is preparing to spend £4.2billion and which he said would result in a hard Northern Ireland border. He said there is a clear majority in the House against it.
We can do this by obtaining a new deal, he said, however he said this is only possible if the prime minister changes her 'red lines’ so as to opt for something other than a simple free trade agreement. Labour wants a new comprehensive customs union with the EU, a single market deal delivering frictionless trade and maintaining protections on matters such as workers’ rights. The current deal is “undeliverable”, he said and the prime minister is “in denial” about how comprehensively her deal was voted down.
He would not rule out the option of a People’s Vote, he said.
Mr Corbyn said Opposition MPs coming out of talks with the prime minister all said there was no flexibility on her part and “nothing has changed”.
Conservative Remainer Ken Clarke said he has seen no evidence of other countries ‘queueing up’ to make trade deals after Brexit and asked Mrs May to consider more flexibility on a customs union and regulatory alignment with the EU.
The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, said Mrs May was trying to "run down the clock". "There is no sign she's interested in meaningful talks," he said.
He called for extension to article 50 to allow a second Brexit referendum. If Brexit goes ahead he said the SNP hoped to see Scotland leave the United Kingdom as "an escape route from the chaos of Brexit" so as to "stay at the heart of Europe while the rest of the UK turns inwards and isolated from its European neighbours".
Mrs May is tabling a motion setting out the aims she described today, which will be debated further in a week’s time on Tuesday January 29. MPs will be able to table amendments to it.
She told Mr Corbyn the £4.2billion would have to be spent on Brexit preparations with or without a deal.
- For more reactions to Brexit, further information on France's plans for Britons in France, and a proposal that might help safeguard Britons' free movement rights, see February's edition of The Connexion newspaper, out this week.
