EU Says It Wants to Help But Won’t Renegotiate: Brexit Update
May is touring European capitals trying to secure concessions on her Brexit deal to sell it to a hostile domestic Parliament.
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Theresa May is touring European capitals trying to secure concessions on her Brexit deal to sell it to a hostile domestic Parliament.
Key Developments
- Leadership challenge could be close, but BBC reports the threshold hasn’t been reached
- EU makes clear the deal can’t be renegotiated; Tusk says the bloc wants to help
- May says the deal will go back to Parliament by Jan. 21
Tusk Says the Bloc Wants to Help (6 p.m.)
EU Council President Donald Tusk says he had a "long and frank" discussion with May. It’s "clear the EU27 wants to help. The question is how."
May Seeks Assurances Backstop Only Temporary (5:55 p.m.)
In comments broadcast on Sky News from Brussels, Prime Minister Theresa May said she’s been seeking assurances from EU leaders on the so-called Irish backstop and that she’d found a “shared determination to deal with this issue and address this problem.”
The U.K. needs certainty that the backstop -- effectively an insurance policy against a hard border in Ireland after Brexit -- would only be temporary, she said, reiterating her view that there’s no deal available with the European Union that doesn’t include such an arrangement.
She avoided the question on the potential leadership challenge in her Conservative Party (4:15 p.m.), saying only that she’d been traveling in Europe. Sky News reported that the European Research Group of Brexit hardliners thought it has enough support to trigger a confidence vote.
May to Meet Irish PM Varadkar Wednesday (4:30 p.m.)
The prime minister’s whistle-stop European tour will resume tomorrow. She’ll travel to Ireland after the Cabinet meeting for talks with Irish premier Leo Varadkar before heading directly to Brussels, her spokesman, James Slack, told reporters. May will also speak to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz by phone later Tuesday, he said.
According to Slack, May told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday that the view of Parliament is that the backstop must only be temporary, and that the EU must do something to get the deal over the line. Both agreed to stay in touch on the issue, he said.
Regarding the BuzzFeed report (3:25 p.m.) that May told EU officials on Sunday she was thinking of postponing the parliamentary vote on her deal, Slack described it as “categorically untrue.”
Leadership Challenge is Close, Sky Reports (4:15 p.m.)
Sky News reports that the European Research Group of Brexit hardliners reckons it has enough support to trigger a leadership challenge.
Forty-eight members of Parliament have to write letters to prompt a vote of no-confidence in May as party leader, and Sky reports that the ERG thinks enough letters have gone in. The only person who knows for sure is Graham Brady, and he isn’t saying anything.
Merkel Sees No Way to Amend Brexit Agreement (3:35 p.m.)
In a sign of how difficult May is likely to find it to get the assurances she needs, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told May that in her view there’s no possibility to amend the EU’s exit agreement with the U.K. That’s according to a party official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity on Merkel’s comments in a closed-door briefing to lawmakers of her CDU-CSU party bloc.
According to the official, Merkel said she made it clear to May she’s interested in a successful exit treaty and successful text for the future relationship -- but that this has to happen at EU level rather than bilaterally.
Did May Tell EU First About Pulling the Vote? (3:25 p.m.)
It’s a question that could infuriate the very people May needs to win over -- members of Parliament and pro-Brexit Tories. BuzzFeed reported that May told EU officials on Sunday that she was thinking of postponing the vote on her deal. She only informed her Cabinet on a conference call at 11:30 a.m. on Monday.
In Brussels, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s spokesman was asked whether the report is true. “I’m not ready to tell you when exactly this occurred,” commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters. “President Juncker has been in permanent contact with Prime Minister May throughout this procedure.” It’s not a denial.
Pressure on Corbyn (12:40 p.m.)
The People’s Vote campaign, which wants a second Brexit referendum, has been trying to increase the pressure on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to call a confidence vote in May’s government.
Labour’s position is it won’t back a referendum until it has failed to bring the government down with a confidence vote. But it’s also Labour’s position that it won’t call a confidence vote until it’s sure it can win it. The party seemed to imply yesterday that this wouldn’t be until after May has failed to get her deal through Parliament, which might not be until late January.
At a cross-party event in London, some of the People’s Vote representatives suggested Corbyn was stalling because he wanted Brexit to go ahead.
“Jeremy Corbyn runs the risk of being seen to condone the chaos for his own benefit,’’ said Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville Roberts. Conservative Anna Soubry called him “the biggest obstacle’’ to another referendum.
And the Scottish National Party’s Ian Blackford said Corbyn had to table a confidence motion by the close of business today. Otherwise, he seemed to suggest, the SNP would try to put one down.
Cabinet to Discuss No-Deal Brexit Planning (11:30 a.m.)
May’s spokesman, James Slack, has just finished briefing reporters in Westminster. The prime minister is “seeking clarity” on whether she can join the Brexit discussions among the remaining 27 EU members at the summit in Brussels on Thursday, he said.
In the meantime, May will convene her Cabinet on Wednesday for talks on preparations for a no-deal Brexit. Slack also repeated May’s line from Monday that Parliament would vote on her deal by before Jan. 21.
“What’s needed here is getting assurances that will satisfy Parliament, and we are open to how that happens,” Slack said.
Committee Lays Out Confidence Vote Rules (11 a.m.)
Bernard Jenkin, the pro-Brexit Conservative who chairs Parliament’s cross-party Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, has released a report laying out the procedure for a confidence vote in the government.
And while the committee did not mention Brexit specifically, its report implies that if May makes a vote on her deal a matter of confidence in the government and then loses, she would have 14 days to pass a separate vote of confidence in the government.
The government may not necessarily include May as its leader, if, for instance, the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party said they would only support another Tory leader.
And May would only actually resign as prime minister once it became clear who would replace her so the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, is not forced into the position of having to decide who can form a government.
Rutte: ‘Useful’ Talks with May (10:40 a.m.)
Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a tweet he and Theresa May had a “useful dialogue which saw us discuss the latest #Brexit developments.”
And back in the U.K., figures published Tuesday showed the two departments at the center of Brexit expanded by more than a quarter over the past year, an indication of the resources being devoted to getting Britain out of the EU at the expense of other departments.
Juncker ‘Surprised’ by Brexit Turn of Events (9:30 a.m.)
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg he’s “surprised” at recent developments and that EU leaders will refuse to renegotiate the Brexit agreement -- though he said there’s scope to offer “clarifications.”
“The deal we have achieved is the best deal possible -- it’s the only deal possible,” Juncker said. “There is no room whatsoever for renegotiation, but of course there is room -- if used intelligently -- there is room enough to give further clarifications and further interpretations without opening the withdrawal agreement.”
Brexit Is EU Summit ‘Surprise Guest’ as Bloc Bars New Deal
Leadsom Unhappy With Bercow (9:10 a.m.)
In her BBC Radio interview, Leadsom also revealed some of the dismay within the government at the role of House of Commons Speaker John Bercow in Monday’s drama. He said the government had been “deeply discourteous” in calling off the vote on its Brexit deal, after 164 lawmakers had already spoken in three days of debate on it.
“He’s made his views on Brexit on the record, and the problem with that of course is the chair’s impartiality is absolutely essential,” Leadsom said. She went on to say that it’s “a matter for Parliament” whether he stays in post.
Leadsom: May Seeks ‘Legally-Binding’ Assurances (9 a.m.)
U.K. Cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom told BBC Radio the prime minister is seeking “legally-binding reassurances” on her Brexit deal to win over Parliament.
That may include an addendum to the Withdrawal Agreement setting out that the U.K. Parliament will vote before entering the so-called backstop arrangement, Leadsom said, and potentially that both the EU and British Parliament would then vote annually on the backstop continuing.
“There are plenty of options for the prime minister to talk to the EU about that don’t involve reopening the Withdrawal Agreement,” Leadsom said.
Meanwhile Martin Callanan, U.K. minister for exiting the EU, told reporters in Brussels May “wants additional legal reassurances that the U.K. can’t be permanently trapped in the Irish backstop.”
May on the Road (8:45 a.m.)
May’s Tuesday itinerary takes in meetings with Mark Rutte in the Hague and Angela Merkel in Berlin. She’s seeking concessions that will enable her to reassure Parliament that the U.K. won’t be trapped indefinitely in the so-called Northern Ireland backstop, fallback arrangements in case Britain in the EU can’t agree on a future trading relationship.
Back in Britain, May’s backbench lawmakers continue to plot her downfall, while opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has called an emergency debate in Parliament on the premier’s decision to delay a vote on the deal.
Earlier:
--With assistance from Jonathan Stearns, Andrew Atkinson and Jessica Shankleman.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net;Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma Ross-Thomas at erossthomas@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs
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