May heading for showdown as EU sees no change in Brexit deal

UK Prime Minister Theresa May was on a collision course with the EU over her new withdrawal agreement demands as Brussels insisted the deal was not open for renegotiation.

May on Tuesday won a thin majority to seek an alternative to the Irish backstop, having given in to the ultra-hard-right anti-EU wing of her party and the DUP. However, EU leaders immediately dampened any sense of triumph she may have been feeling.

MPs backed an amendment by senior Conservative backbencher Graham Brady which called for May and the EU to find “alternative arrangements” to the backstop – the mechanism designed to stop a hard border in Ireland if a free trade agreement cannot be reached.

In effect, May ripped up her own deal, one that had been agreed with the EU in almost two years of talks.

On Wednesday, chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc's institutions “remain united”. “And we stand by the agreement we have negotiated with the UK, never against the UK,” he said.

EU President Donald Tusk was set to talk to May on Wednesday night, a spokesman said and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he would address the European Parliament later in the day.

In London, the Brexit Secretary gave a spectacularly uninspiring interview in which he failed to give any indication as to what “alternative arrangements” the UK could offer as a solution to the contentious backstop issue.

Asked several times by the BBC to provide an example, the best the bewildered Barclay could offer was the deflecting “rather than getting into technicalities” and cited the use of technology, although he offered no proof of its existence anywhere in the world.

He also said there was still a chance that the UK would leave the EU without a deal on 29 March if the two parties could not compromise, despite a non-binding vote against such a prospect in parliament on Tuesday night.

Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney, in a speech at the Institute of International and European Affairs on Wednesday afternoon, dismissed the "wishful thinking" of the UK government and said Ireland refused to go into negotiation "on the basis of threats".

"There are currently no alternative arrangements, which anybody has put forward, which achieve what both sides are determined to achieve - to avoid a hard border, including any physical infrastructure or related checks or controls, and protect the all-island economy, North-South co-operation and the Good Friday agreement," he said.

"Believe me, this has been explored endlessly in the negotiations over the last two years."

Backing Coveney's statement, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told May on Wednesday that the divorce deal cannot be renegotiated.

“The withdrawal agreement remains the best and only deal possible,” Juncker told the European Parliament. “The debates and votes in the House of Commons yesterday will not change that. The withdrawal agreement will not be renegotiated.”

“Ireland’s border is EU’s border and is our joint priority,” Juncker said on the backstop. “Yesterday’s vote has further increased the risk of a disorderly Brexit.”

Nevertheless, he believes an agreement could still be reached with the UK.