"We are heading for a Brexit without an agreement," says the legislator for DUPs in Northern Ireland

BELFAST (Reuters) – The UK is about to leave the European Union without a divorce, a senior Northern Irish party official who backs Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday.

Less than five months from the date on which Britain must leave the EU, May has still not resulted in a divorce deal, as negotiators are stranded on the so-called deal ". backstop "that would keep open the border between British-led Northern Ireland and an EU member. Ireland, regardless of the course followed by Britain after Brexit.

The pound fell to a new low of the day against a dollar to 1.3020 dollar and the British government bond futures reached an unprecedented high.

"It looks like we are not aiming at any agreement," Jeffrey Donaldson, one of the 10 legislators of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said on Twitter, says it is necessary to support the month of May in order to get any British Parliament.

Many business leaders and investors fear that the policy will compromise an agreement, pushing both the EU and the UK into a "no agreement" Brexit that would weaken the West, frighten financial markets and block the arteries of commerce.

UK Trade Minister Liam Fox said on Tuesday that it was "impossible" to say whether a Brexit deal could be concluded with the EU this month or the next, but that Britain wanted an agreement, and an agreement is better than not agree.

Irish border

Negotiators are trying to find an urgent solution at the Irish border that would satisfy Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party and the divided Conservative Party of May.

Ireland insists that there must be no border infrastructure, the DUP insists that Northern Ireland should not be treated differently from Britain, and the Brexiteers say that Britain must have the right to conclude its own trade agreements after Brexit.

The refusal of the DUPs to sign a first border agreement caused the temporary collapse of the talks at a critical juncture last December, before the negotiators found a way to keep all parties on board and allow the negotiations to take place. moving forward.

An open border is considered essential for not disrupting the peace agreement signed on Good Friday of 1998, which ended decades of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

The security arrangement is intended to provide a solution to the problem if no other solution is found. London wants the reinforcement to be temporary rather than permanent, but the EU has resisted any suggestion that it could expire.

On Monday, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Dublin was ready to consider ways to review the security system, as long as it would not allow Britain to separate it unilaterally, said Tuesday. its Minister of European Affairs, Helen McEntee. help advance the talks.

Donaldson, a member of the DUP, whose party has consistently criticized the Dublin approach, said that a Brexit without agreement would have serious consequences for the Irish economy and that he "does not understand why the Irish government seems if determined to follow this path.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney spoke of "carnage" last month if Britain collapsed without an agreement, although this is mainly felt by the UK, Ireland can benefit from the "great solidarity" of the other EU Member States.

According to the Irish central bank, if Brexit left trade between Great Britain and Ireland governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization for countries that have not concluded a bilateral agreement, gross domestic product ( GDP) would be 2.9% lower in the long run.

However, the Irish economy would consider this scenario with a strong position, having grown faster than other EU countries over the past four years and the central bank forecasting GDP growth of 6 , 7% this year.