LONDON �� Theresa May has secured concessions from Brussels that will let her keep all of the United Kingdom in a customs union with the European Union to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
The concessions could win over some opposition Labour Party lawmakers and increase the chances of getting a Brexit deal through Parliament, the Times said.
The newspaper said May is also on course to win an agreement on a "future economic partnership" that will allow the U.S. to keep open the prospect of a free-trade accord similar to the one Canada has with the EU. That in turn could sway the euroskeptic wing of her Conservative Party.
A May spokesman said Sunday that the Times report was "speculation" and that negotiations with the EU are ongoing. The government previously said the withdrawal agreement is 95 percent complete and that there's also been progress in talks on the future relationship.
The key sticking point remains how to avoid customs checks taking place at the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, without putting up new barriers between Northern Ireland and the British mainland.
According to the Times, the EU has agreed to May's call for a U.K.-wide customs deal that would negate the need for checks either between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, or at the frontier with the Republic of Ireland. That would be a legally binding commitment under the terms of the separation treaty, the newspaper reported.
The bloc has also accepted that regulatory checks on goods can take place "in the market" by British officials, rather than at ports by EU inspectors, according to the Times.
During a visit to Dublin Friday, May's de facto deputy David Lidington said the U.K. and the EU are "certainly very close to resolving" the Irish border issue.
Even if a deal is agreed upon in Brussels in the coming days, May will have to sell it in London �� first to her Cabinet, and then to Parliament.
