May seeks MPs’ mandate to reopen Brexit deal

What to know?

• British Prime Minister Theresa May won parliament’s backing to renegotiate her Brexit deal – a major policy reversal that sets up a new stand off with the EU after it ruled out any change.
• May’s dramatic decision to abandon a pact she herself sealed with the 27 EU leaders at a summit last month came with Britain on course to crash out of the bloc after 46 years in a blaze of political and economic chaos.
• The pound plunged on fears of a no-deal scenario as MPs voted through an amendment saying they would only support a divorce deal if the controversial “backstop” clause to keep the Irish border open was removed.
• A spokesman for EU leader Donald Tusk said the divorce deal was “not open for renegotiation” while French President Emmanuel Macron said it was the “best agreement possible”.
• MPs also voted in favour of a non-binding measure that “rejects the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without a Withdrawal Agreement”. But they failed to vote through a more important plan, backed by European supporters, that would have tried to force through a Brexit delay if no new deal with the EU emerged by Feb 26.
• May now faces a formidable challenge convincing Brussels to re-open talks that took 18 excruciating months to conclude. She said parliament’s approval of the backstop amendment gave her the mandate to seek to obtain legally binding changes to the withdrawal agreement.
• But she conceded that there was “limited appetite” in the EU for renegotiation.

‘ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENT’

• Parliament on voted against the draft deal by a crushing margin. That significantly raised the risk that Britain’s departure without a plan on March 29 will create trade and economic disruptions on both sides of the Channel.
• Brexit hardliners from May’s Conservative party think the backstop – created to keep the border open with Ireland – could see Britain indefinitely tied to EU trade rules.
• The winning amendment calls for the backstop to be replaced with “alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border” – vague wording that did not pin May to any specific approach.

What is the Brexit backstop?

• Variously described as an insurance policy or safety net, the backstop is a device intended to ensure that there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, even if no formal deal can be reached on trade and security arrangements.
• It would mean that if there were no workable agreement on such matters, Northern Ireland would stay in the customs union and much of the single market, guaranteeing a friction-free border with the Republic.
• Both the UK and EU signed up to the basic idea in December 2017 as part of the initial Brexit deal, but there were disagreements since on how it would work.

(International)(Channel newsasia)

Pic courtesy:News.com