British MPs seeking to pressure Prime Minister Theresa May this week to renegotiate her Brexit deal should heed EU warnings that it will not succeed, Ireland’s foreign minister warned on Sunday.
Simon Coveney said attempts by Brexit supporters to remove or set a time-limit on a controversial “backstop” clause on the Irish border would never be accepted by Brussels.
“Listen to what people are saying in Europe,” he told BBC television, saying May’s Brexit deal was “a balanced package that isn’t going to change”.
“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.
He was speaking ahead of another showdown between May and the House of Commons over Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, which is scheduled for March 29.
MPs this month rejected the divorce agreement she struck with the bloc last year.
One Tuesday night, in a series of votes on parliamentary amendments, they will set out what they want her to do next.
Some MPs want to delay Brexit or adopt a whole new strategy, but others are demanding changes to May’s deal that they suggest could allow them to support it.
These focus on the backstop, an arrangement intended to keep open the border between the UK and Ireland by temporarily tying London to the EU’s trade rules.
May has already spent months trying to amend the backstop with no success, but has promised to return to Brussels if that is what her MPs want. Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied Coveney’s comments meant she could not succeed, telling the same BBC programme that he was taking a “negotiating position”.
He said Dublin did not want Britain to leave the EU without a deal, which is the default position if MPs cannot reach agreement.
The European Commission this week conceded that without a deal.