UK Brexit minister rules out renegotiations with EU

UK Brexit Minister Stephen Barclay has said if Britain seeks to reopen Brexit negotiations, other EU countries will want to ask for more.

He said his government is focused on the parliament vote on the deal on Tuesday.

Mr Barclay said that if Theresa May loses the vote, she can still stay on as prime minister.

He said the Norway-style deal with the EU would respect the result of the 2016 Brexit campaign.

Mrs May warned today that parliament's rejection of her deal could leave Britain in the European Union and bring the opposition Labour Party to power.

Media reports have said Mrs May is under pressure from her cabinet to delay the vote and fly to Brussels to secure more concessions ahead of a planned summit with 27 fellow EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

However, Mr Barclay insisted the vote would happen on Tuesday.

"The vote is going ahead," he told BBC's Andrew Marr Show today.

"That's because it is a good deal, it's the only deal and it's important we don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

Mr Barclay said "we are making the case" for the deal, after being challenged on whether Mrs May was heading for defeat.

Insisting that there would be no more negotiations with Brussels, he said: "The risk for those who say simply go back and ask again, the risk is that isn't necessarily a one-way street.

"The French, the Spanish and others will turn round, if we seek to reopen the negotiation, and ask for more."

It comes as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Mrs May spoke by phone this evening in advance of the vote.

They discussed Brexit, including the planned vote in Westminster on Tuesday, and also discussed preparation for this week's European Council.

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Meanwhile, former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said that Mrs May could stay on as prime minister and go back to Brussels and renegotiate the divorce agreement if she loses Tuesday's vote on the deal.

Mr Johnson, a leading Brexit campaigner who is seen as a possible successor to Mrs May, said Brussels would listen if she asked for the removal from the deal of the Irish "backstop", an insurance policy designed to prevent a post-Brexit hard border between EU member Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland.

Asked if she could stay on as leader and go back to the EU to renegotiate the deal if she loses the vote, Mr Johnson said: "Of course, that is exactly what needs to happen."

"What people want to hear now is not stuff about leadership elections and personalities, what they want to hear is that there a plan to get out of this mess," he said.

Mr Johnson claimed the backstop measure left the UK open to "blackmail" by the EU.

"The real problem with the backstop arrangement is it gives the power to Brussels and to all the other EU member states effectively to blackmail us and to get what they want out of the future trade negotiation," Mr Johnson said.

"It is a diabolical negotiating position."

He refused to rule out challenging Theresa May for the party leadership.

Asked if he would promise not to stand against the prime minister he said: "I will give you an absolute, categorical promise that I will continue to advocate what I think is the most sensible plan."

But Mr Johnson said it was "nonsense" to suggest he had already begun offering fellow Tories jobs in a future administration.

Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has suggested that Brussels recognised the need to time-limit the Irish border backstop before officials took negotiations in "another direction".

Mr Raab said Michel Barnier, the European Union's chief negotiator, told him he understood the backstop "needs to be short" after being challenged over making it finite.

Mr Raab added he made clear to Mrs May that the UK should have "stood firm", adding a "robust" line should now be taken given the room for movement on the issue.

He went on to describe the Brexit deal as the "worst of all the alternatives" and said some of the no-deal Brexit warnings issued by the Government are "just not credible".

Mr Raab quit the cabinet last month over the Brexit deal.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Raab said he suspects the deal will be voted down but could still be "remedied" if the EU is willing to look again at the backstop and that the UK will transition to a free trade agreement.

After saying there were moments the UK could have "pressed harder" on the backstop during the talks, Mr Raab added: "You could see this backstop issue coming down the line. It was obvious. It wasn't a shock or a surprise.

"I made clear that it had to be time-limited and finite, and Michel Barnier, at one point in one of our meetings, said 'I understand it needs to be short', but I'm afraid after that the technical track for the negotiations took it in another direction and I was very clear with the Prime Minister that we should of stood firm at that point, and that was back in July.

"Now I'm not suggesting it's easy to go back. You lose moments in negotiations and you can't just claw them back. What I am suggesting is that there is probably more flexibility than is being suggested and actually we should have taken a robust line back then and we certainly should be taking one now."

On no-deal technical notices issued by the Government, Mr Raab said: "Well I scrutinised all of those papers and frankly I can say, now as a backbencher, that some of those assumptions are just not credible."

Asked about Mrs May's future, Mr Raab added: "I think she could still, even in the event of a big loss on the vote, which we expect, I think she could still turn it round. But we need a change of approach. She needs to go back with a, if you like, a best final offer to the EU."

Mr Raab later said he would not rule himself out of running for leader but stressed he would not "get sucked into that debate".

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said his party is "determined" to defeat the British government over the Brexit deal, adding issues over the confidence and supply agreement with the Tories "come after that", adding: "It really depends what happens."

"Clearly if this defeated or if the Withdrawal Agreement changed in a way that is satisfactory then clearly those issues don't arise as far as any vote of no confidence in the Government is concerned," he said.

On the possibility of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister if the government collapses, Mr Dodds said: "I don't think anyone realistically believes that - this is a scare story being put out by Theresa May because under the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act everybody knows, even people in the Labour Party know, that's unlikely unless this deal were to go through.

"I think then clearly Theresa May would be in difficulty in terms of the parliamentary arithmetic."

However, Fine Gael's spokesperson on European Affairs has said the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement cannot be changed.

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Senator Neale Richmond said that while the Irish Government may be able to "listen" on the future political framework ,he said that the 585-page Withdrawal Agreement is "not for changing and can't be changed."

He said it is most likely that the vote will be lost on Tuesday but what happens after then is "anybody guess".

Senator Richmond also said what was happening in Britain was "frightening and fascinating" but its going to impact "all our lives."

Brexit minister rules out renegotiations with EU, says vote 'will go ahead'

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