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Your support makes all the difference.Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU could be re-opened if MPs reject the deal negotiated by Theresa May this evening, Germany’s foreign minister has said.
Heiko Maas told reporters at the European Parliament: “The agreement stands, as it is. I doubt very much that the agreement can be fundamentally reopened. If there were a better solution, it would already have been put forward.”
He expressed hope that the withdrawal agreement could still pass, but added: “If it goes wrong tonight, there could be further talks.”
EU leaders and top officials in Brussels have previously rejected any suggestion that discussions could be re-opened. Commission officials have stated since December that they do not forsee any further meetings between the UK and EU.
The intervention by Mr Maas is likely to give succor to Tory MPs who hope to box the EU into offering more concessions by rejecting the agreement.
Though the EU has been emphatic that it will not drop the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, further talks could see changes to the political declaration on the future relationship.
The prime minister is heading for a significant defeat this evening on her plan, with projections suggesting that the margin of victory for the opposition could hit a new historic record.
Ms May spoke to Angela Merkel over the telephone at the weekend, leading to unsubstantiated reports in the UK press that Germany might ride to the rescue of the beleagured UK.
But a German government spokesperson told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday: ”The Chancellor has made no assurances beyond what was discussed in the European Council in December and what is laid down in the letter by Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk.”
The spokesperson added that an account of the phone call reported by The Sun newspaper and apparently sourced from UK government officials had been “incorrectly reproduced”.
The EU on Monday released a letter to the prime minister aimed at reassuring her MPs to vote for the deal, without changing its content. The bloc says it wants to conclude a trade agreement by 2020 and that its reassurances have "legal value".
It however explicitly rejected calls to add binding get-out clauses or expiary dates for the backstop, as demanded by Tory MPs.
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