this week, apart from expressions of good will,” said Simon Fraser, former head of Britain’s foreign office, now managing partner at Flint Global, a consultancy. But that will require changes in the Irish backstop, designed to avoid customs checks on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Irish backstop plan is loathed by the hard-line supporters of Brexit whom Mr. Tusk excoriated, because it could keep the United Kingdom tied, indefinitely, to some European Union rules. So Conservative lawmakers from different sides of the debate have spent three days negotiating a plan in London that they hope Mrs. May will press. Both those concepts would invalidate the purpose of the backstop, they say.

Source: New York Times February 06, 2019 14:24 UTC