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LONDON – Theresa May is under pressure to turn the tide after cabinet ministers have threatened to break plans for a possible Brexit "backstop" that could actually keep Britain in a customs union with the EU after Brexit.
The Prime Minister reportedly asked senior ministers of his "Brexit War Cabinet" on Thursday to accept a proposal to keep Britain in a customs union with the EU, if it fails to an agreement on alternative arrangements before the end of the two-year Brexit transition period.
US Secretary of Commerce Liam Fox told her friends that her proposal "would make life very difficult for me," according to a report from the Mail, because it would limit the UK's ability to conclude new free trade agreements. exchange outside the EU.
At least three cabinet ministers backing Brexit would consider resigning in protest if May capitulated to EU deadline demands, the Telegraph reported. Penny Mordaunt, Secretary of International Development, and Esther McVey, Secretary of Labor and Retirement, and Andrea Leadsom have the most important concerns about the projects, although they have not attended the meeting. Last night.
However, several reports revealed on Friday that Theresa May had complied with Cabinet protests and would not yield to EU demands during the time allowed. The Sun newspaper announced that she now hoped that the EU would give ground in November.
The Irish support measure, designed to avoid any further borders between Ireland and Northern Ireland, is supposed to be temporary until a UK-EU trade agreement can be reached. be concluded, and Theresa May is committed earlier this year to the expiry of this agreement no later than the end of December 2021. "
But many high-level ministers fear that this arrangement will become permanent and have reported their concerns to Theresa May at the meeting last night.
"The worst of a world"
The time-limited backstop is now the last hurdle for the UK and the European Union to agree on the terms of a Brexit-related divorce deal, but it's not the only way out. is a major obstacle. Yesterday evening, many ministers warned May that the plan would simply not pass in the House of Commons if it did not contain a time-limited provision, as it would appear that the United Kingdom has accepted a customs union endless with Europe, reported the BBC. However, it is unlikely that the EU will step back, pointing out that the protective provision must be "all the time" to fulfill its function as an emergency measure to avoid a new frontier in Ireland .
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is the other major problem of the Prime Minister, who relies on the votes of the party of Northern Ireland to give him a fictitious majority in parliament. The party objects to the support plan because it would effectively maintain Northern Ireland in the single market for goods and thus impede trade between firms moving goods from one part of the United Kingdom to another.
Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, said Thursday afternoon that the Prime Minister could not "in good conscience" recommend such an agreement and vowed to oppose it.
"These are important days for Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom as we know them," she said.
She added that the goods control plan was "a one-way turnstile, which could restrict Britain's trade to Northern Ireland," adding that it was "the worst of all". A world ".
In a disturbing development for the May government, said a source of DUP politico: "For now, the job position is better for us than May's."
Theresa May's week has been hellish, but next week could be even worse. It has to negotiate an agreement that is acceptable to the EU, its own cabinet, to defend grassroots Conservative MPs and DUP, groups with diametrically opposed interests. Next week, the Prime Minister will probably travel to Brussels for a potentially historic summit with other European leaders.
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