Staff ReporterTheresa May heads to Brussels on Thursday to try to persuade EU leaders to renegotiate her Brexit deal, just 50 days before the UK leaves the world’s largest trading bloc.
The meetings come amid worsening relations between the two sides with senior EU leaders scathing about the approach of the leaders of the country’s Brexit faction.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said on Wednesday there was a “special place in hell” for those who had pushed for Brexit without a plan.
Mrs May’s deputy, David Lidington, told the BBC that the comments were not the “most brilliant diplomacy in the world” before Mr Tusk and other leaders meet the prime minister.
British MPs in January rejected Mrs May’s Brexit plan struck after months of negotiations with the EU, forcing her back to Brussels to seek further concessions.
EU leaders have given few signs of giving ground to Mrs May on the key issue about the state of the border between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.
A failure by Mrs May to secure any meaningful concession that can win the support of MPs increases the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit, which would see the UK crash out of the EU on March 29.
The government has warned that would be the worst-case scenario for the UK, immediately scrapping trade and regulatory and political agreements and plunging the country into economic crisis.
The leader of the UK’s opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, set out his demands in a letter to Mrs May on Wednesday, which included a “permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union.”
Mrs May has previously ruled out such a union as it would prevent the UK from running its own independent trade policy.
