Barnier digs in over divorce deal as MPs? showdown looms

[ahlam1399]

LONDON: EU negotiator Michel Barnier said in an interview published on Sunday the bloc would not change the divorce deal agreed with Britain as MPs prepare for a showdown week over Brexit.Barnier insisted the agreement’s most contentious element, a so-called backstop mechanism to keep the Northern Irish border open in all post-Brexit circumstances, must remain in place.“The backstop is the maximum amount of flexibility that the EU can offer,” Barnier wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, following what he called “intense discussions” among member states.He added he was “not optimistic” of avoiding Britain crashing out of the European Union without an agreement on October 31. The stance is an apparent setback for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who since taking power in July has called for the backstop to be scrapped. Johnson has insisted the country must depart the bloc with or without a deal on the latest delayed deadline in order to honour the 2016 referendum which saw 52 per cent of Britons vote to leave.His bid to reopen the agreement struck with Brussels by predecessor Theresa May was encouraged by recent meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.The British Premier said in a Sunday Times interview he saw “some very interesting signs of progress in our conversations”. However he conceded: “There’s a good chance we’ll get a deal and there’s a good chance that we won’t.”MPs from across the political spectrum have vowed to introduce legislation blocking a no-deal exit as soon as they return to parliament from a six-week summer recess on Tuesday.“We have simply got to stop us leaving without a deal,” Keir Starmer, Brexit spokesman for Labour Party, told the BBC on Sunday. He added the proposed law would “require an extension” to Britain’s departure date.In response, Johnson’s government is reportedly considering requesting the Queen not to give royal assent to any bill passed by the rebels, an unprecedented step in modern times. Arch-Brexiteer minister Michael Gove fuelled speculation about such a ploy when he was asked Sunday if the government would accept such a law. “We will see what the legislation says when it is put forward,” he told the BBC.Johnson may also sanction potentially more than a dozen Conservative lawmakers poised to vote against the government this week by throwing them out of the parliamentary party, according to reports.But leading Tory rebel David Gauke, a senior minister until recently under May, insisted Sunday that “the national interest has to come first”. Gauke confirmed to Sky News he would meet Johnson on Monday “to hear from him as to what is his plan to deliver a deal”.Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament also sparked several legal challenges that will be heard this week.Meanwhile, the government continues to prepare for a possible no-deal Brexit.Gove, charged with preparing for the scenario, said Sunday that some food prices would likely increase, while others would go down. Gove also insisted that EU citizens’ freedom of movement would end on October 31, despite a Sunday Times report that the plan had been postponed on the advice of lawyers.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/NqzZJ4ISSXI

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