In Brussels, PM May seeks help on Brexit

Brussels, December 13 

Britain’s weakened Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday said that she did not expect to secure an immediate breakthrough in Brexit talks that would provide her fractured party with the kind of reassurances needed to get her deal through Parliament.

The European Union’s response as she arrived in Brussels for two days of talks with fellow EU leaders at a summit was bound to disappoint May, fresh from surviving a mutiny against her leadership within the Conservative party.

The other 27 national leaders were wary of giving Britain any legal assurances over the most contentious element of their tentative Brexit deal — the emergency fix for the Irish border — partly because they expected May would come back again to ask for more in January.

“I recognise the strength of concern in the House of Commons and that is what I will be putting to colleagues today,” May said on arrival. “I don’t expect an immediate breakthrough, but what I do hope is that we can start work as quickly as possible on the assurances that are necessary.” May won the backing of 200 Conservative Party members of Parliament versus 117 against, in a secret ballot that deepened divisions just weeks before Parliament needs to approve a deal to prevent a disorderly exit from the EU.

May, who met Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Brussels and EU summit chair Donald Tusk, wants legal assurances that the Irish “backstop” will not remain in place indefinitely. The backstop is an emergency fix to prevent extensive border checks on the island of Ireland. It is the most contentious element of the deal. — Reuters