Theresa May has urged MPs to give her Brexit deal “a second look” in a last-ditch appeal ahead of today’s crucial vote, hours after the EU attempted to back the British prime minister by promising a Northern Ireland backstop plan would be “as short as possible”.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mrs May said that failing to deliver on Brexit would be a “subversion of our democracy”.
A three-page letter from Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, and Donald Tusk, European Council president, made no significant revisions to the terms of Britain’s Brexit package. But the two leaders said they expected any use of the contentious Irish backstop, which many Brexiters say would “trap” the UK in a customs arrangement with the EU, would be replaced “as quickly as possible”.