The UK and the EU are playing a dangerous game of chicken over the Irish border, I say in The Sun this morning. There has been almost no progress on this issue over the summer and without a deal on it, there can’t be a withdrawal agreement.
One of those involved in the negotiations on the British side tells me, the EU ‘believe we will blink first’. But that won’t happen. One Brexit red line that Theresa May is adamant she’ll never cross is her insistence that no British PM could sign the EU’s proposed text on the Irish border, which would see Northern Ireland become part of the customs territory of the EU.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, is prepared to produce a de-dramatised version of the backstop. This would concentrate on the 16 areas where the EU thinks there would need to be checks between Britain and Northern Ireland.
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