In a speech to be delivered in Belfast, May said while she accepted that a hard border needed to be avoided, the EU’s current plan was “unworkable” and that it must engage with her policy document released earlier this month which proposes negotiating the closest possible commercial links for goods trade to protect businesses and to fulfil a commitment to avoid having infrastructure on the border.
The EU’s “backstop” solution, which has been rejected by May, proposes that Northern Ireland would remain closely aligned with the EU’s single market and customs union on the grounds that it would create a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s first official visit to the UK got off to a shaky start on Thursday after the president said Theresa May’s Brexit plan would “kill” a free trade deal with the US.
The interview even threatened to undermine Theresa May's new Brexit strategy, painfully thrashed out with her cabinet last week. Trump even questioned whether her plans upheld the referendum result and accused her of ignoring his advice.
Against a backdrop of protests and demonstrations nationwide against his visit, the US president openly humiliated May by suggesting that former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who quit in opposition to her Brexit plans this week, would make a great prime minister.
