London, August 30: The United Kingdom has made replacement offers for the Irish border backstop, British transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Friday, slamming Ireland and other European Union (EU) nations for suggesting London has not yet made any.
According to Reuters news reports, when asked about claims by Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney that the UK had not proposed any “credible” and concrete alternative to replace the Irish backstop deal, Shappstold Sky News: “It’s just not true.”
“We are putting forward alternatives,” he said. “So it’s a cover when they keep saying: ‘You are not putting forward ideas’ – we are putting forward ideas.”
London said the EU and British Brexit negotiators are expected to hold twice-weekly dialogues next month to rearrange the Withdrawal Agreement, which was dismissed repeatedly in the UK parliament over opposition to the Irish backstop.
Britain is slated to withdraw from the EU on October 31 – something which British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would withdraw with or without an arrangement in line with the bloc to settle the withdrawal.
“We all want to get a deal but, at the moment, nothing credible has come from the UK government in terms of alternatives to the backstop,” Coveney told journalists on his arrival for dialogues his EU officials. “There is no country that wants a deal more than Ireland”.
“But that deal has to be based on the Withdrawal Agreement and has to be consistent with that,” he added.
Johnson said the nation must have the Backstop deal – a process that would allow Ireland to keep open its sensitive border open after Brexit Deal by tying the UK wth EU trading rules, removed in order to convince the British parliament to approve the withdrawal deal.
“If there are alternatives to the backstop that do the same job, well then let’s hear them. And if we can work out a deal on that basis, so be it,” Coveney said. “But it’s got to be credible.”
Also read: Boris Johnson offers no ‘credible’ replacement for Irish Backstop deal: Ireland FM Simon Coveney