Fears that the EU intends to trap the U.K. in the Northern Ireland backstop are “unreal” and can be “put to bed” by the add-ons to the Brexit deal agreed late last night in Strasbourg, said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
But in a statement early Tuesday, he said the new joint interpretative instrument finalized in talks between Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker does not change the Withdrawal Agreement, but is “complimentary” to it.
“It does not reopen the Withdrawal Agreement or undermine the backstop or its application,” he stressed, adding that “it does not call into question that the backstop will apply unless and until better arrangements are agreed.” The backstop is the mechanism agreed between the two sides to avoid the need for the hard border in all circumstances.
Varadkar said the new documents “provide additional clarity, reassurance and guarantees sought by some to eliminate doubt or fears, however unreal, that the goal of some was to trap the U.K. indefinitely in the backstop. It is not. These doubts and fears can now be put to bed.”
“The dramatization that resulted from Mrs. May’s last-minute trip is part of the political theater offered to us by the U.K.” — Philippe Lamberts, Green MEP
The Irish prime minister said he now hopes MPs in the U.K. would back the Brexit deal in a vote due later Tuesday in the House of Commons.
U.K. Environment Secretary Michael Gove, a leading Brexiteer, said the add-ons to the deal give “additional legal weight” to the U.K. position.
“We have an improvement on the Withdrawal Agreement,” he told the BBC’s Today Program. “The European Union has made clear that the backstop is intended to be temporary, and that is clear, in black and white, it’s a legally binding declaration.”
“If the EU seeks to act in a way that is not in accordance with their commitments then we can go to court and we can win,” Gove said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter that he is “pleased” with the agreement, but he warned that “there is no alternative.”
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte | Carl Court/Getty Images
But the new assurances failed to win over some skeptical members of May’s own party.
“Ultimately, I don’t think that this document that’s been produced actually makes any significant difference to the original agreement,” former Attorney General Dominic Grieve told the BBC’s Today show.
Asked whether he plans to vote against the deal — which was defeated by a record margin in January — Grieve said: “My view is very clear, that we are dealing with an agreement to leave the EU that bears no relationship to what we were debating in 2016. Now, if people want to leave on these terms, then leave we must, and we will, but it must go back to the public [in a second referendum].”
Many Brexiteers are reserving judgement until they have seen a legal analysis of the deal by the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, which is due to be delivered Tuesday morning.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he continued to oppose May’s Brexit deal, tweeting: “The Prime Minister’s negotiations have failed. Last night’s agreement with the European Commission does not contain anything approaching the changes Theresa May promised Parliament, and whipped her MPs to vote for.”
Green MEP Philippe Lamberts, who is a member of the European Parliament’s Brexit Steering Committee, reinforced the notion that the additions were about interpretation rather than substance. “Did the project of agreement change? The answer is no. The rest is interpretation. What happened yesterday was only meant to clarify intentions on both sides.”
“The dramatization that resulted from Mrs. May’s last-minute trip is part of the political theater offered to us by the U.K.,” he added.
Some MPs in Westminster are requesting more time to consider the deal that was laid before parliament shortly after 10 p.m. Monday night. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith told Today that the prime minister should delay the meaningful vote to allow MPs to examine the details of the new deal. “Why the rush?” he said. “I certainly would think that an extra day would help enormously … we need to scrutinize this.”
Since her Brexit deal was so overwhelmingly rejected, the Prime Minister has recklessly run down the clock, failed to effectively negotiate with the EU and refused to find common ground for a deal Parliament could support.
That’s why MPs must reject this deal today.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 12, 2019
Backbench Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg added his voice to calls for a delay in the vote. “This has been desperately rushed. I think it would be better to have the vote tomorrow when people have had more mature consideration,” he told Today.
Gove insisted the vote would go ahead as planned, warning of the risks of a “delayed, diluted” Brexit. “It’s make your mind up time,” he said in a message to all MPs.
If May’s deal is defeated again on Tuesday, and MPs vote on Wednesday to prevent a no-deal exit, there would be “a lengthier period of uncertainty,” Gove warned, adding that the EU could then set the terms of any extension to Article 50.
“If we don’t take the prize tonight, the risk is that we will see a diluted, softer or less palatable Brexit … and we would be in a position where we’re petitioning the European Union for the terms of any extension. That would weaken our position,” Gove said, summoning up the spirit of Manchester United’s unexpected come-from-behind victory over Paris St. Germain last week in the football Champion’s League.
“At that point [before the game] they hadn’t won — but they did,” he said.
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