Brexit: May urges EU to agree backstop changes

UK Prime Minister Theresa May will urge the European Union (EU) to help get her Brexit deal through the Commons by agreeing legally binding changes to the controversial backstop.

On Friday, she'll say the EU's actions will "have a big impact on the outcome" when MPs vote on it next week.

But Labour's Sir Keir Starmer said it was now "clear" the PM "will not be able to deliver the changes she promised to her failed Brexit deal".

The EU says the UK must come forward with new ideas to break the deadlock. The UK is due to leave on 29 March, the BBC reported.

May will visit workers in Grimsby, Lincolnshire on Friday, days before the second "meaningful vote" in the House of Commons on the withdrawal deal she has negotiated with the EU.

She will tell them: "Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too.

"We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote."

The first vote, in January, saw the deal rejected by 432 votes to 202, the largest defeat for a sitting government in history.

May is seeking legally-enforceable changes to the "backstop" -- a controversial insurance policy designed to prevent physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland -- but there have been few visible signs of progress.

--IANS

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