Ireland has dealt a blow to Theresa May’s hopes of obtaining the changes to her Brexit deal needed to secure the backing of her own Conservative MPs.
The country’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said the Irish backstop that Ms May wants to renegotiate “isn’t going to change” despite the prime minister’s deal being comprehensively rejected by the House of Commons.
On Tuesday Ms May hopes to secure backing for a move to go back to Brussels and ask for changes to the backstop, in order to put it to another full vote in the coming weeks.
Tory rebels and her DUP Northern Irish partners in government have both indicated they could back her deal if she can secure changes to the backstop.
But speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Mr Coveney said: “The European parliament will not ratify a withdrawal agreement that doesn’t have a backstop in it. It’s as simple as that.”
He added: “The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises. It was designed around British red lines.
“Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement is part of a balanced package that isn’t going to change.”
The backstop arrangement – to prevent a hard border being implemented on the island of Ireland – comes into play if the UK cannot agree a future trade deal with the EU by December 2020, potentially locking Britain into an indefinite customs union.
But it has emerged as a key sticking point with many Conservative MPs and the DUP refusing to countenance a withdrawal agreement with it in.
Health secretary Matt Hancock denied that Mr Coveney’s refusal to consider renegotiating the backstop meant Ms May’s Brexit deal was “dead in the water”.
He said: “That’s a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think it’s also extremely clear from that interview [with Mr Coveney] and the tone... is that Ireland doesn’t want to have a no-deal Brexit.
“The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.
“The idea the EU and the Irish government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen.”
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