British Prime Minister Theresa May is set to convene her Cabinet on Wednesday to win the support of senior ministers to sign off the final draft Brexit agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union, Reuters reported. The Cabinet ministers have been invited to read the agreement ahead of the meeting.
The UK is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019. After months of negotiations, UK and EU officials agreed on the draft text of a Brexit agreement on Tuesday. The details of the agreement have not been made public, however, some details were later leaked in the media.
The draft text has agreed on how to avoid a hard border – one manned by high security – between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit, BBC reported. The agreement on the Ireland backstop aims to stop physical checks at the border with the Irish Republic after Brexit. May is believed to have proposed a UK-wide backstop that would make the whole country remain in a customs union with the EU for a limited time after 2020. There will be a review of the Brexit agreement in July 2020, six months before the end of the transition period, The Guardian reported, quoting officials.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar will also hold a special Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss the agreement text.
On Wednesday morning, the pound surged 0.12% against the dollar and rose 0.16% against the Euro, after the Brexit agreement details were leaked.
Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the draft was “utterly unacceptable” to anyone who believes in democracy and said he would vote against the draft. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the deal was unlikely to be good for the country because of the “shambolic nature” of the negotiations.
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