May calls on MPs to back last-ditch Brexit terms

By Julian Shea in London | China Daily | Updated: 2019-03-13 07:20

British Prime Minister Theresa May has called on members of Parliament to "come together" and back her latest proposals for Britain's exit terms from the European Union ahead of Tuesday evening's vital vote.

The country is due to leave the 28-member bloc on March 29, but May has yet to come up with a withdrawal agreement that has proved acceptable to a majority of MPs.

If a deal cannot be reached in time, the country could leave the EU on a so-called no-deal Brexit, without any alternative arrangements for the numerous trade and legal arrangements Britain currently has with the EU. Chaos could follow.

In January, MPs overwhelmingly rejected May's terms and told her to come up with a better plan.

On Monday, she held talks with EU leaders over the sticking point of the Northern Ireland backstop, the insurance policy relating to trade between the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state.

Afterward, May claimed to have secured legally binding changes, ensuring the backstop would only be a temporary arrangement.

"MPs were clear that legal changes were needed to the backstop. Today we have secured legal changes," she said.

"Now is the time to come together to back this improved Brexit deal and deliver on the instruction of the British people.

"What we have secured is very clearly that the backstop cannot be indefinite. It cannot become permanent. It is only temporary."

No 'third chance'

European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker added a note of warning, "There will be no new negotiations. It is this. In politics, sometimes you get a second chance. It is what we do with the second chance that counts. Because there will be no third chance."

MPs gave the new proposals a mixed reception. Opposition Labour MPs said nothing has changed, and Eurosceptics within May's own government will seek clarification from the attorney general before deciding whether to support it.

"All now depends on his legal advice. It is critical that he confirms we can escape this backstop," said former Brexit secretary David Davis.

Backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg, who leads the European Research Group faction within the Conservative Party, was also giving little away.

"I'm not sure the agreements with the EU are a major change, that they continue to be promises of goodwill," he told the BBC Radio news program Today.

"So my focus will be on whether the unilateral declaration is genuinely unilateral."

Meanwhile, Environment Minister Michael Gove has urged people to back May's proposals as the only way forward toward a palatable Brexit.

"We may find ourselves having Brexit delayed and diluted, which I think would be a grave error and would not honor the vote of 17.4 million people," he told the BBC.

julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com