Brussels has stepped up its opposition to attempts to reopen Theresa May’s Brexit deal as senior Tories began talks on alternatives to the Irish backstop. The European Union’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the backstop was the “only operational solution” to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.
European Council President Donald Tusk has hinted that the UK should stay in the EU, after the prime minister's Brexit deal was rejected in parliament. If a deal is impossible, and no-one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is? he tweeted.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing likely defeat in Parliament when she asks MPs to approve her Brexit deal this Tuesday. That result would trigger huge uncertainty about the future of Britain's exit from the European Union.