Theresa May has been in Northern Ireland today attempting to ease concerns over her commitment to avoiding a hard border. The Prime Minister told business leaders in Belfast that while Parliament wanted ‘changes to the backstop as it currently exists’, her commitment to no hard border in Northern Ireland was ‘unshakeable’.
However, May’s words also went some way to highlight the difference in expectation as to what No. 10 think is an acceptable change to the backstop – and what the Brexiteers in the European Research Group believe is acceptable. When pressed, May said she was not seeking to get rid of the backstop entirely as she saw it as an important ‘insurance policy’:
‘I am not proposing to persuade people to accept a deal that does not contain that insurance policy for the future.’
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