May Says U.K. Might Never Leave If Deal Rejected: Brexit Update

Key Developments:

EU is said to make Britain a new offer on the backstop -- but well short of what Britain has demanded Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt: history will judge both sides badly if there’s a no-deal Brexit U.K. Attorney General Cox won’t travel to Brussels for talks Friday May is making a speech in the northern English fishing port of Grimsby

May: Brexit Might Not Happen If Deal Is Rejected (12:50 p.m.)

May said that Brexit might never happen if MPs refuse to back her deal with the EU in a decisive vote in Parliament next week.

“Back it and the U.K. will leave the EU. Reject it and no one knows what will happen,” she said in a speech in Grimsby, northern England. “We may not leave the EU at all,” she said. “the only certainty would be uncertainty."

EU Says It Has ‘Offered Ideas’ on Irish Backstop (12:10 p.m.)

Asked about Prime Minister Theresa May’s effort to shift the Brexit blame onto the European Union, the EU executive in Brussels said it “has offered ideas” on how to break the impasse over the Irish-border backstop.

“You have followed the process of negotiation and talks very closely, so you know that the EU side has offered ideas on how to give further reassurances regarding the backstop,” said Alexander Winterstein, a spokesman for the European Commission, the EU executive. “Intensive work is ongoing as we speak,” he told reporters in Brussels on Friday.

May Calls EU Leaders to Try to Break Impasse (11:30 a.m.)

Theresa May spoke with her counterparts in Bulgaria, Portugal and Denmark on Thursday to set out the U.K. position on the Brexit talks, her spokeswoman Alison Donnelly told reporters in London on Friday. “She will continue to engage today and over the course of the weekend” in phone calls with other EU leaders, Donnelly said.

The premier doesn’t currently have plans to travel to Brussels over the weekend, Donnelly said. That’s a sign that a breakthrough isn’t yet in sight. Nevertheless, Donnelly said the premier still intends to hold the vote she has promised on her Brexit deal on Tuesday.

Brexiteer Says May Not Playing ‘Strongest Cards’ (11 a.m.)

Conservative Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns said “it’s looking highly unlikely” May will get her deal through Parliament next week unless there is movement around the contentious Irish backstop issue.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Jenkyns said she still hoped the EU would offer further concessions as the deadline to Brexit day nears, but that the U.K. hasn’t been playing its “strongest cards.”

“We’ve seen the way the EU operated with Greece. They said they wouldn’t give any more money in a bailout and then in the final weekend, the final 24 hours, they came up with something,” she said. “It’s whoever blinks first, and unfortunately we’ve blinked first every time.”

Barclay to Give Committee Evidence Before Vote (10:30 a.m.)

Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay will take questions from the House of Commons Committee on Exiting the European Union at 4 p.m. on Monday, according to an Parliament email, ahead of the key vote Tuesday on May’s Brexit deal.

Barclay canceled an appearance this week due to talks with the EU in Brussels, and committee chairman Hilary Benn used a parliamentary session on Wednesday to ask Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow to intervene.

Though Bercow said he had no power to force Barclay to appear to answer lawmakers’ questions, he also stressed that “it’s desirable in terms of the scrutiny and accountability process” for Barclay to go before the committee. It appears he listened.

EU Calls Last-Minute Brexit meeting (10:25 a.m.)

The EU’s 27 national ambassadors are convening an emergency meeting to discuss Brexit at 3 p.m. in Brussels today, an EU official said. In the behind-closed-doors discussion, the bloc’s Brexit negotiators will update the envoys on the latest situation following May’s speech in the U.K., with talks between the two sides looking set to roll into the weekend.

Cox Won’t Be Back in Brussels on Friday (8:45 a.m.)

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, who’s leading the negotiations for the U.K., won’t be heading back to Brussels on Friday, British officials said. No visit had been formally announced, but it adds to the sense that the two sides don’t have much to say to each other.

While there are no plans for a trip today the situation is fluid and both Cox and Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay are ready to travel at short notice -- potentially over the weekend -- if necessary, the officials said.

Hunt: EU Risks Poisoning Relations with U.K. (7:20 a.m.)

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said May has been “extremely dignified” in the way she’s approached the negotiations with the EU and the bloc needs to give ground as the talks draw to a close.

“History will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong, we want to remain the best of friends with the EU -- that means getting this agreement through in a way that doesn’t inject poison into our relations for many years to come,’’ Hunt told BBC Radio 4.

He said the EU needs to be “flexible” and to understand that British negotiators are making a very clear request for clarity on the Irish border backstop to get the deal through a vote in the House of Commons. “If this ends in acrimony, people will say the EU got this moment wrong and I really hope they don’t." DM