Pro-Brexit Tories Willing to Accept Five-Year Limit on Backstop
- U.K. has asked EU to make the Irish-border guarantee finite
- May phoned EU leaders as efforts to revise deal continue
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Pro-Brexit members of Theresa May’s Cabinet would be willing keep Britain tied to the European Union’s customs regime for as long as five years in an effort to break the deadlock in divorce talks, people familiar with the matter said.
The prime minister is trying to renegotiate the so-called backstop guarantee for avoiding a hard border with Ireland because euroskeptic Conservatives fear it will trap Britain inside the customs union indefinitely. Without their support, May can’t get her deal ratified in Parliament.