Britains legal chief seeks solution to Brexit deadlock
Attorney-general Geoffrey Cox will try to clinch compromise with EU in last-ditch bid to win over dissenting MPs
London — British Prime Minister Theresa May’s top lawyer will try to clinch a Brexit compromise with the EU this week in a last-ditch bid to win over MPs before crunch votes that could delay the divorce. The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, but still has no deal in place governing its exit terms after MPs voted in January by 432 to 230 votes to reject an agreement May reached in 2018 with the bloc. May is hoping to win over enough MPs to pass it by agreeing on a legal addendum with the EU on the deal’s most controversial element: a “backstop” to ensure no hard border between EU-member Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland. Attorney-general Geoffrey Cox, Britain’s top government lawyer, is due to meet EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on Tuesday. Legally binding changes “The attorney-general continues to pursue legally binding changes to the backstop that are necessary to ensure the EU cannot hold the UK in it indefinitely,” said a spokesperson for May. “We’r...
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