Brexit: EU negotiator and Council chief tell Theresa May deal is not open for renegotiation
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Your support makes all the difference.The EU's chief Brexit negotiator told Theresa May time was too short to find an alternative to the Irish border arrangement agreed in their Brexit deal and said the divorce deal was not open for renegotiation.
Michel Barnier told France's RTL radio the two-year divorce negotiations had looked for an alternative to the "Irish backstop", designed to ensure the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland remains free of border posts.
"No one, on either side, was able to say what arrangement would be needed to ensure controls on goods, animals and merchandise without having a border," Mr Barnier said. "We have neither the time, nor the technologies."
After a relatively successful night for Ms May during which the government defeated a number of attempts by MPs to secure control of the Brexit process, she will now have the Herculean task of convincing EU leaders to reopen talks.
MPs approved an amendment tabled by Sir Graham Brady by 317 votes to 301 to accept Ms May’s Brexit deal as long as an alternative to the backstop could be found.
But the response from Europe was united and blunt.
"The Withdrawal Agreement is not open for renegotiation," European Council president Donald Tusk tweeted in what he said was a message to Ms May.
"Yesterday, we found out what the UK doesn't want. But we still don't know what the UK does want."
Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour MPs who defied the whip in yesterday’s votes “will be dealt with”, as he holds talks with Ms May on how the Brexit negotiations should move forward.
Mr Corbyn met with the prime minister to discuss how a conensus could be reached on the Brexit negotiations only weeks after he had rejected Ms May’s initial invitiation.
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Mr Stringer said:
Often in discussing the European Union my colleagues use kindergarten language - they say 'they're our friends, how could they not have our interests at heart?'.
I think it misunderstands that actually the bureaucrats in Brussels are a self-interested group of people - self-interested in their own survival and perpetuating their growing power and influence across the whole of the European continent."
Former Tory cabinet minister Sir Oliver Letwin has said he does not think it is "at all likely" that Ms May would succeed in getting changes to her withdrawal agreement.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live:
I don't actually think it's at all likely that that will succeed. And I think it's much more likely that if we're to find a deal before March 29, it will have to be done on a cross-party basis.
If you were a betting person, would you bet two weeks from now that she is going to come back with something that will obtain a majority? I'd have to say, I wouldn't bet on it, no.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour's chief whip Nick Brown MP, Seumas Milne the party's executive director of strategy and communications and aide Kartie Murphy have just gone into Theresa May's office for the Brexit meeting.
DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds has claimed the EU's chief negotiator has "blown a hole" in the concept of the Irish backstop.
The DUP MP said Michel Barnier had said some checks and controls could be done away from the border and claimed that meant a backstop would not be necessary.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is speaking to the European Parliament right now and repeating the lines we have heard on repeat in the last few days.
The Withdrawal Agreement remains the best and only deal possible.
The debate and votes in the House of Commons yesterday do not change that.
The Withdrawal Agreement will not be renegotiated."
Mr Juncker told MEPs that the backstop represented a "safety net" for the Irish border, adding: "No safety net can ever truly be safe if it can just be removed at any time."
He said he sometimes had the impression that some on the UK side hoped that 26 EU states "will abandon the backstop - and so Ireland - at the last minute".
But he insisted: "This is not a game and neither is it a simple bilateral issue. It goes to the heart of what being a member of the EU means.
"Ireland's border is Europe's border and it is our Union's priority."
Mr Juncker said he still does not know what the UK wants and that the notion of "alternative arrangements" is a concept and not a plan.
We know from yesterday's debate that the House of Commons is against many things. It is against a no-deal Brexit, it is against a backstop.
But we still don't know what exactly the House of Commons is for.
A concept is not a plan. It is not an operational solution."
I will listen to her ideas, but I will also be extremely clear about the position of the EU.
Yesterday's vote has further increased the risk of a disorderly exit of the UK. We have tried everything in our power to prepare for all scenarios, including the worst."
Here is Michel Barnier saying "the backstop is part and parcel of the withdrawal agreement and will not be re-negotiated".
The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told the European Parliament today:
We share the will of the UK Parliament to avoid a no deal.
I agree with Theresa May, voting against a no deal - as happened yesterday - does not rule out the risk of a no deal.
For us, the Withdrawal Agreement remains the best and only means to ensure an orderly withdrawal of the UK.
The backstop is part and parcel of the Withdrawal Agreement and this agreement will not be renegotiated."
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