THE GOVERNMENT’S Brexit negotiations are in chaos, with the EU knocking back Theresa May’s latest attempts to win concessions.
Brussels has told the UK it must deliver “acceptable” proposals today to allow negotiators to work over the weekend.
The Prime Minister is desperate to avoid another historic defeat when MPs vote on her deal next Tuesday. Last month the agreement was rejected by a majority of 230 – the biggest loss for a government in Parliament’s history.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, who has been leading talks in Brussels, told MPs he was continuing to press for legally binding changes to the backstop, the safety net that stops a hard border on the island of Ireland by, effectively, tying the UK to EU rules.
READ MORE: Alyn Smith: The historic Holyrood Brexit debate was a good day for Scottish democracy
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has reportedly accused the UK Government of coming up with “a legal solution to a political problem”.
But Cox insisted here had been “focused, detailed and careful discussions” with the EU.
“We are discussing text with the European Union,” he said.
“I am surprised to hear the comments that have emerged over the last 48 hours the proposals are not clear. They are as clear as day and we are continuing to discuss them.”
France’s Europe minister Nathalie Loiseau said they were still waiting for a “sustainable proposal” from the British side.
“We have heard what you don’t want, we are willing to know what you want. There were no precise proposals – there were ideas,” she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has tried to win over his Brexit backing backbenchers, by telling them to vote for May’s deal or risk delaying the UK’s exit from Europe.
“If the Prime Minister’s deal does not get approved on Tuesday then it is likely that the House of Commons will vote to extend the Article 50 procedure, to not leave the European Union without a deal, and where we go thereafter is highly uncertain,” he told the BBC.
“For those people who are passionate about ensuring that we leave the European Union on time, it surely must be something that they need to think very, very carefully about now, because they run the risk of us moving away from their preferred course of action if we don’t get this deal through on Tuesday.”
However, former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers said the Government appeared to be heading for another defeat.
“I suspect we will get the same result,” she told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One. “It really does depend on whether there is a last-minute breakthrough in the Geoffrey Cox work.”
Meanwhile, there has been more anger in Scotland over the UK Government’s controversial Stronger Towns fund, announced this week in a bid to woo over Labour MPs to back the Prime Minister’s deal.
READ MORE: SNP demand answers on Theresa May’s ‘cynical Brexit bung’
With £1.6bn going to English regions, analysis suggests the Scottish Government should be in line for around £158m of Barnett Consequentials.
But according to the Sun, cabinet sources claim Communities Secretary James Brokenshire is insisting he gets to say how the money is spent.
The paper’s source said: “We’re worried we can’t trust the SNP to spend the money on what it’s earmarked for.”
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman said that could not happen, and would be nothing short of a “constitutional outrage that would roll-back devolution and short-change Scotland”.
“By seeking to steal powers from Scotland’s Parliament and put them in the hands of remote Tory ministers, who have no mandate in Scotland, the UK Government is making the case for independence. “
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