May sustains further resignations as hope for a Brexit deal fades

British Prime Minister Theresa May is running out of time to reach a Brexit agreement with the European Union, with the chances of a deal being struck dwindling by the day.

Ms. May had hoped to secure a withdrawal agreement with the EU over the weekend and have it approved by EU leaders at a special summit this month. Negotiations ran into the early hours of Monday morning, but no deal was reached and the EU has signalled that the special summit will not take place.

As the talks ground to a halt, Ms. May faced more disgruntlement at home, raising concerns that even if she strikes a deal, it won’t get the required parliamentary approval. On Friday, Transport Minister Jo Johnson resigned over Ms. May’s Brexit strategy. On Monday, his brother, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, levelled a broadside at the Prime Minister, calling her approach “shameful” and urging more cabinet ministers to revolt; Britain is “on the verge of signing up for something even worse than the current constitutional position,” he wrote in The Daily Telegraph. “These are the terms that might be enforced on a colony.”

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The main sticking point in the talks is the fate of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The boundary has been virtually non-existent since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles. The United Kingdom, EU and Ireland have said they don’t want to see the return of a hard border, but can’t figure out how to make that happen once Britain is out of the bloc. The EU and Ireland are insisting on what is known as a “backstop,” or guarantee that no matter what Brexit deal is struck Northern Ireland will remain in the European Single Market, which allows for the free flow of goods and services throughout EU member states. Ms. May has insisted that Britain cannot accept an arrangement that treats Northern Ireland differently, and hard Brexit backers in her Conservative Party caucus won’t tolerate any part of the United Kingdom remaining in the single market, arguing that would defeat the purpose of Brexit.

Ms. May’s officials said on Monday that a deal was close but acknowledged there were still substantial issues to overcome with regards to the backstop for Northern Ireland. There could still be time for an EU leaders’ summit this month if Ms. May and the EU can conclude a deal by Wednesday, the officials said, but few expect that to happen. The EU has another leaders’ meeting set for mid-December that could approve a Brexit deal, but it would leave little time for ratification by parliaments in Britain and EU member states before the U.K. leaves the EU on March 29. The EU released a short statement saying “intense negotiating efforts continue, but an agreement has not been reached yet.”

A group of politicians representing four parties from Northern Ireland has also increased the pressure on Ms. May by insisting that she accept the EU’s backstop proposal.

“We don’t see any positive outcome from Brexit,” Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill said during a news conference in London on Monday. “So, in all of this mess the only guarantee that we have, the only certainty that we have, and it’s far from ideal, is the backstop.”

Stephen Ferry, a member of the legislative assembly for the Alliance Party, said Ms. May had ignored the concerns of the people of Northern Ireland, the majority of whom did not vote for Brexit. “Most people in Northern Ireland either want [to remain in the EU] or to have the backstop,” he said, adding that a no-deal Brexit would damage the local economy, which relies heavily on unfettered access to the Irish market and the free movement of people. “If we have a no-deal scenario, the whole viability of Northern Ireland could be undermined.”

The group did not include representatives of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), one of the largest in Northern Ireland and a strong supporter of Brexit. Ms. May’s Conservatives do not have a majority in the House of Commons and rely on the 10 DUP MPs to stay in power. However, DUP Leader Arlene Foster has also raised concerns about Ms. May’s strategy and signalled that the party may not support the final deal if it includes the backstop. Ms. Foster is opposed to anything that would cut Northern Ireland off from the rest of the United Kingdom, and the DUP, which is backed largely by Protestants, fears the backstop could lead to a reunification with the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland to the south.