advertisement
Britain entered a sixth day of political limbo on Wednesday with Prime Minister Theresa May yet to seal a deal to prop up her minority government and facing calls to soften her stance on Brexit days before negotiations on leaving the EU begin.
May's team will resume talks with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on a deal to secure their support in parliament after the 60-year-old leader failed to win an outright majority in last week's election – a vote she called expecting to strengthen her position.
May said on Tuesday that talks with the DUP had been productive – a view shared by DUP leader Arlene Foster – and that Brexit negotiations would begin as planned next week.
Following a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, May said:
But pressure was mounting for May to change course on the type of Brexit Britain should pursue.
The Times newspaper said finance minister Philip Hammond would push May not to leave the customs union – an arrangement which guarantees tariff-free trade within the bloc but prohibits members from striking third-party trade deals.
The report cited unnamed sources, and the finance ministry declined to comment.
May will also be reliant upon the 10 lawmakers from the eurosceptic DUP, who would help her edge past the 326 votes needed in parliament to avoid the government collapsing.
But a deal with the DUP also risks destabilising Northern Ireland by increasing the influence of pro-British unionists. They have struggled for years with Irish nationalists, who want the British province to join a united Ireland.
Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said the prospect of a British agreement with the DUP was causing anxiety and fear.
While the DUP are deeply eurosceptic, they have balked at some of the practical implications of a so-called hard Brexit – including a potential loss of a "friction-less border" with the Republic of Ireland – and talks will touch on efforts to minimise the potential damage to Northern Ireland.
Brexit minister David Davis has insisted the approach to the EU divorce has not changed, but May has recognised that a broader consensus needs to be built for Brexit and has made clear she would listen to all wings of the party on the issue.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron said May needed to listen to rival political parties, and that there would be pressure for a softer Brexit.
May faces a difficult balancing act. Divisions over Europe helped sink the premierships of Margaret Thatcher, Major and Cameron, and many of her lawmakers and party membership support a sharp break with the EU.
The performance of the British economy could also influence perceptions of Brexit. Government bond prices suffered heavy losses on Tuesday after consumer price inflation jumped to 2.9 percent in May.
The veteran conservative predicted that Britain would regret its departure from the bloc at some point in the future.
France's Macron said the EU's door was still open for Britain as long as the negotiations were not finished, but that it would be difficult to reverse course.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)