Irish border dispute cannot block Brexit deal: UK PM May
British Prime Minister Theresa May has expressed confidence that her government and the European Union will reach an agreement on United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the bloc, saying disagreements on how the border on the Island of Ireland will be administered after Brexit was not an issue that could not derail the talks.
May told a rowdy session of the British parliament on Monday that the Irish border issue was not as big a hurdle to a Brexit deal as it has been thought by the people and the media, saying her government was upbeat it can reach an agreement with the EU before official Brexit date on March 29, 2019.
“We cannot let this disagreement derail the prospects of a good deal and leave us with a ‘no-deal’ outcome that no-one wants,” said May, adding, “It is frustrating that almost all the remaining points of disagreement are focused on how we manage a scenario which both sides hope should never come to pass and which, if it does, would only be temporary.”
The EU and the UK announced at the weekend that they had failed to agree on how to deal with the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland. The issue has been a key sticking point in Brexit talks as the EU wants to have Northern Ireland in its customs union after Brexit for a two-year transition period and even beyond that as a backstop until a mutually-agreed solution is found.
May’s government has resisted EU’s demand for moving the border to the Irish Sea, saying the bloc could include the entire UK in its customs union to avoid a border between the two Irelands.
Northern Ireland’s dominant political party has warned that it would withdraw its parliamentary support from May if she accepts EU’s backstop plan.
May said, however, that she would never countenance any suggestion that could effectively separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
“So it must be the case, first, that the backstop should not need to come into force,” she told the parliament, adding, “As I have said many times, I could never accept that, no matter how unlikely such a scenario may be.”
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