UK's May demands new deal from EU on Irish border backstop

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday called on the European Union to strike a new deal to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland and demanded Brussels quickly respond to her ‘white paper’ plan to avoid a damaging no-deal Brexit.

In a speech to politicians and business leaders in Belfast’s docklands, May accepted a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic once Britain leaves the bloc would be “almost inconceivable”, but dismissed the EU’s current plan as “unworkable.”

Instead, May said the EU must engage with her Brexit ‘white paper’ policy document released earlier this month, which proposes negotiating the closest possible links for trade in goods to protect businesses and to fulfill a commitment to avoid having infrastructure on the border.