Theresa May must rescue and improve her favoured plan for a post-Brexit customs partnership with the European Union or risk seeing withdrawal negotiations collapse within weeks, Ireland has warned. The EU meanwhile softened criticism of her customs proposals in an attempt to rescue the talks. Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, today signalled a European willingness to use an improved version of Mrs May’s idea for a “new customs partnership” as a potential basis to avoid a hard border in Ireland. “I think the concept of a shared customs space is something that certainly from an Irish perspective we would like to see some new thinking on from the British side but again that is a matter for the British government to decide upon,” he…

Source: The Times May 14, 2018 15:56 UTC