Wounded May goes to Brussels looking for EU concessions
PM seeks changes to Brexit deal after winning confidence vote
More than a third of Tory MPs want leader deposed
UK Prime Minister Theresa May headed to Brussels on Thursday looking for concessions on her Brexit deal after surviving a no confidence vote overnight, but only after she offered to step down before the next election.
There were suggestions the EU would try to help May by insisting that the vexed Irish backstop proposal was an undesirable outcome and would only be in place for a short time.
However, the substantive details of the withdrawal agreement were not open to renegotiation, senior EU leaders and officials made clear.
German chancellor Angela Merkel told the Bundestag on Wenesday there was “no intention to change the exit agreement”.
“That’s the common position of the 27 member states and, in that sense, we do not expect any changes,” she said.
The European parliament's Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt said that while the Brexit deal was “far from certain, one thing is clear: even in the Tory party, there is no majority for no-deal or hard Brexit. Time for cross party co-operation (like in the EU) to end the uncertainty at both sides of the Channel”.
According to a draft document being prepared for the two day council meeting, European leaders intended to reiterate the backstop arrangement would only be temporary.
Brussels would negotiate and “conclude expeditiously a subsequent agreement that would replace the backstop”, in new language emphasising the need for intensive talks after the controversial arrangement is put into force.
“The union stands ready to examine whether any further assurance can be provided,” the leaders will say, according to the draft. “Such assurance will not change or contradict the withdrawal agreement.”
The backstop would impose a UK-wide customs union with the EU as an insurance policy against a hard border with Ireland if trade talks failed.
May emerged from the no-confidence vote on Wednesday night triumphant but wounded. More than a third of her backbench MPs were against her leadership in a ballot that came down 200 to 117 in favour of the prime minister.
She will take small comfort in the knowledge that she cannot be challenged by her own MPs for a year.
The parliamentary arithmetic for her deal is unchanged, although one byproduct of the rebellion is that May has a clear idea of how many Tory MPs are against her Brexit plan.