May says lawmakers opposing her deal may kill Brexit altogether
British PM says lawmakers voting against her deal may kill Brexit altogether
LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May is scheduled to convince rebel lawmakers to back her Brexit divorce deal, warning them that Britain's exit from the European Union is in peril from politicians seeking to thwart it.
Mrs May will set out new assurances from the EU that it does not aim to sever Northern Ireland from Britain under the deal's most contentious term - a "backstop" requiring EU rules in the province until a better free trade plan emerges.
The future of Britain's March 29 exit from the EU is uncertain as Parliament is likely to vote down Mrs May's deal tonight, opening up outcomes ranging from a disorderly divorce to reversing Brexit altogether.
Mrs May will use a speech in the leave-supporting city of Stoke-on-Trent to say that lawmakers blocking Brexit is now a more likely outcome than leaving without a deal.
"There are some in Westminster who would wish to delay or even stop Brexit and who will use every device available to them to do so," Mrs May will say in a speech to factory workers, according to advance extracts.
Mrs May warned lawmakers on Sunday that failing to deliver Brexit would be catastrophic for democracy, and her ministers said thwarting the outcome of the 2016 referendum could lead to rise in far-right populism.
As part of the effort to get the deal approved by the British Parliament, the EU is due to set out some assurances in a choreographed exchange of letters, EU officials said. Brussels has repeatedly said the deal itself cannot be renegotiated.
The letter will address the so-called "backstop". Both opponents and supporters of Brexit have said the backstop would require Britain to obey EU rules indefinitely, long after it has given up say in shaping them.
The EU will stress the backstop is not the EU's preferred solution to avoiding a hard border, that it does not undermine the Good Friday Agreement, nor is it part of any covert attempt by the EU to "annex" Northern Ireland.
Britain will deliver its own letter to the European Council and Commission. Mrs May will make a statement to Parliament at about 3.30pm Greenwich Mean Time (11.30pm, Singapore time), a source said.
But with Mrs May's deal facing opposition from all sides in the lower house of Parliament, the letters are unlikely to change the outcome of the vote.
"If we are brave, we have nothing to fear; and I fear the consequences of no Brexit far more than I fear no deal," Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
"We must have the courage to vote down this lamentable deal and kill it off once and for all."
With no-deal Brexit the default option if Mrs May's deal is defeated, some lawmakers are planning to pull control of Brexit from the government. - REUTERS
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