WATCH: Ireland’s deputy PM accuses Theresa May of 'wishful thinking' over backstop demands
3 min read
Ireland's deputy prime minister has accused Theresa May of "wishful thinking" over her calls for the Brexit deal to be re-negotiated.
Simon Coveney said his country would not be "threatened" by the Prime Minister's demands that major changes be made to the so-called "backstop" arrangement aimed at avoiding a hard border in Ireland.
He said it was “extraordinary” that Mrs May had demanded that her own MPs vote to amend the deal she and the European Union had struck after working on it for the past two years.
MPs voted by 317 to 301 last night in favour of Sir Graham Brady’s amendment, which called for the backstop - which would keep the UK in a customs union with the EU until another way was found to maintain an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland - to be replaced by "alternative arrangements".
Within minutes of the the result being announced, a spokesman for European Council president Donald Tusk insisted the Withdrawal Agreement could not be reopened.
Giving Ireland's response to the latest developments, Mr Coveney said: WWe have a deal, the British government was part of that. It’s an extraordinary situation that when a Prime Minister and a government negotiates a deal and then goes back and during the ratification process votes against their own deal, which is what happened yesterday, and now wants to go back to their negotiating partner and change everything.
"It’s like saying give me what I want or I’m jumping out the window. We owe it to the people of Ireland, north and south. We cannot approach this negotiation on the basis of threats."
Mr Coveney insisted that “nobody disputes” that the backstop should be temporary, but said it was crucial in avoiding the need for checks or controls that could go against the Good Friday Agreement, given there were as yet no alternatives.
He continued: “Believe me, this has been explored endlessly in the negations over the last two years. We have seen no alternative arrangements that meet this essential threshold, and we need a backstop or insurance mechanism based on legal certainty, not just wishful thinking.”
Mr Coveney added that MPs had to understand that it was the “overwhelming wish” across society in Northern Ireland not to return to the “borders and divisions of the past”.
He added: "And anybody who allows that to happen will be judged harshly in history - and rightly so."
Mrs May will hold talks later today with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, as well as Mr Tusk.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "“There are a number of ways that this particular problem could be resolved and we’re looking at all of them."
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