May Seeks Brexit Help at Brussels Summit

Britain's weakened Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in Brussels on Thursday to lobby European leaders for help after she survived a parliamentary mutiny that highlighted the deadlock over Brexit, reported Reuters. 

"We need to get this deal over the line," she told reporters on arrival for two days of summitry, adding that she had "heard loud and clear" the concerns of party rebels who tried to unseat her over the Brexit deal she agreed with leaders last month.

"I don't expect an immediate breakthrough," May said, but she would be telling other leaders of the "legal and political assurances" her party skeptics needed, especially over the risk of the so-called Irish border "backstop" becoming permanent.

EU leaders have ruled out any re-negotiation of last month's package intended to ease Britain out of the bloc in March but Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, warmly embracing May on the summit doorstep, said: "I really want to help her."

Nonetheless, pressed on whether the EU would let Britain crash out chaotically without a deal, Bettel said there was no way renegotiate and insisted: "Brexit was the choice of the UK."

He added that rather than a no-deal chaos, however, he would rather Britons vote again to reverse the 2016 Brexit referendum.

May won the backing of 200 Conservative Party members of parliament versus 117 against, in a secret ballot that deepened divisions just weeks before parliament needs to approve a deal to prevent a disorderly exit from the European Union.

In Britain's biggest decision for decades, Brexit has split the nation and will shape the future of its $2.8 trillion economy including London's status as a global financial hub.

Pro-Europeans fear exit will weaken the West, already...

Continue reading on: