DUP leader Arlene Foster insisted today that the Northern Ireland border backstop in Britain’s divorce deal from the European Union had to be “replaced”.
Just hours before meeting Theresa May in Belfast, Ms Foster branded as “toxic” the backstop to avoid the return of a hard border with the Republic.
She appealed for the political will to find a solution to the row and committed to backing Mrs May’s Brexit blueprint if it could be resolved.
“Parliament’s mandate is to replace the backstop,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “The current backstop is toxic to those of us living in Northern Ireland, and indeed for unionists right across the United Kingdom, because it would cause the break-up of the United Kingdom into the medium and longer term.”
The Prime Minister was due to fly to Belfast after Cabinet this morning to deliver a speech seeking a breakthrough in the deadlocked Brexit talks.
“We will find a way to deliver Brexit that honours our commitments to Northern Ireland,” she was due to say.
Winning over the DUP is seen as key to moving towards a parliamentary majority for Mrs May’s Brexit plans, though some Tory arch-Eurosceptics may be even harder to convince to sign up to her proposals, particularly as they fail to give clear details over the future trade relationship with the EU.
German chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted this uncertainty over the proposed future trade relationship compared with Mrs May’s previous so-called Chequers plan, which would have kept close trading ties with the EU on goods, but allowed more freedom on services.
At an economic conference in Tokyo, Ms Merkel stressed that “from a political point of view, there is still time” to strike a Brexit deal ahead of the UK’s March 29 departure date from the EU.
“But for this it would be very important to know what exactly the British side envisages in terms of its relationship with the EU,” she said.
Ms Merkel acknowledged that the tight timeframe for a Brexit deal was difficult for businesses desperate for certainty given “just-in-time” production systems.
On the backstop, she added: “It should be humanly possible to find a solution to such a precise problem. But this depends on the kind of trade deal we forge with each other.”
Labour is pushing for a customs union, and shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer suggested that “alignment” with the single market should be explored, which could see freedom of movement of workers from the EU.
Tory ex-universities minister Sam Gyimah tweeted that while the focus was on the backstop: “There lots of major flaws with the PM’s deal — fails to reset our relationship with the EU, which is what the Brexit vote called for.”
Meanwhile, former Northern Ireland first minister Lord Trimble said he was considering a legal challenge to the backstop, claiming that it turns the Good Friday Agreement “on its head and does serious damage to it”.
Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab insisted that the UK could thrive after a no-deal but needed a “good long running jump” to leave the EU with confidence.
However, he admitted on the Conservativehome website: “Anyone being able to predict with precision exactly what will happen with a WTO Brexit [no deal] is I think not being humble enough about the uncertainty.”
