Theresa May says she is seeking ‘changes’ to Brexit backstop

Theresa May has suggested that she is seeking "changes" to the controversial backstop in her Brexit deal, rather than its total removal from the UK's EU Withdrawal Agreement.

In a speech in Belfast, the Prime Minister restated her "unshakeable" commitment to avoiding a hard border in Ireland after Brexit, pledging: "The UK Government will not let that happen. I will not let that happen."

But asked how she could convince the people of Northern Ireland to accept a Brexit deal which was stripped of the backstop, Mrs May said: "I'm not proposing to persuade people to accept a deal that doesn't contain that insurance policy for the future.

"What Parliament has said is that they believe there should be changes made to the backstop."

It was in that light that she was working with MPs, the Irish government and the EU to find a way to meet the commitment to take Britain out of the EU on March 29 with a deal which avoided a hard border, she said.

Mrs May is due to travel to Brussels on Thursday for her first face-to-face talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker since the Withdrawal Agreement they reached last November was rejected by the House of Commons.

She will seek to secure changes which can persuade MPs to support her deal in a series of votes expected on February 14.

MPs voted last week for an amendment tabled by Conservative grandee Sir Graham Brady and backed by the Prime Minister which "requires the Northern Ireland backstop to be replaced with alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border".

There was immediate concern from Conservative Brexiteers over Mrs May's apparent indication that she was instead seeking "changes" to the backstop arrangement, intended to keep the border open if no broader trade deal is reached after Brexit.

A source from the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs told the Press Association: "Even if she doesn't mean what she said, we still do."

Challenged over whether she had made a U-turn, Mrs May said: "There is no suggestion that we are not going to ensure that in the future there is provision for this – it's been called an insurance policy, the backstop – that ensures that if the future relationship is not in place by the end of the implementation period, there will be arrangements in place to ensure that we deliver no hard border."

In her speech to an audience of Northern Irish business leaders, Mrs May said she wanted to "affirm my commitment to delivering a Brexit that ensures no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which is unshakeable".

The Prime Minister acknowledged the importance of a seamless border and how the current arrangements had helped "deliver peace and prosperity".

She said: "While I have said that technology could play a part and that we will look at alternative arrangements, these must be ones that can be made to work for the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland."

Mrs May added: "Northern Ireland does not have to rely on the Irish government or the European Union to prevent a return to borders of the past.

"The UK Government will not let that happen. I will not let that happen."

She announced a review by Home Secretary Sajid Javid of issues surrounding difficulties faced by residents of Irish nationality in bringing family members into Northern Ireland.

And she pledged to work with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to "continue to maintain – and indeed enhance – the strongest possible bilateral partnership between the UK and Ireland" after Brexit.