Brexit: Theresa May dismisses claim she might amend Good Friday Agreement

The prime minister robustly rejected the report on the front page of yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, saying that it was not something that she ever had considered or ever would consider.

The paper, which has long been close to the Conservative Party, did not cite a source who had made the claim that the agreement could be altered.

It reported that the proposal was Mrs May’s “plan B’ to get a deal to leave the EU after the Commons last week overwhelmingly rejected her original deal.

The paper said that “one of the proposals under consideration is rewriting the 1998 accord to assure Ireland that the UK is committed to no hard border on the island after the UK leaves the European Union in March”.

It said that “ministers believe that adding some text into the agreement would serve as a way of avoiding having to commit the UK to the backstop”.

The paper said that “one plan would see the UK and Ireland agree a separate set of principles, or add text to “support or reference” the 1998 peace deal, setting out how both sides will guarantee an open border after Brexit.

In the Commons yesterday afternoon Mrs May appeared to be categorical in her rejection of the report.

She said: “I want to be absolutely clear, in light of media stories this morning, that this government will not reopen the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. I have never even considered doing so. And neither would I.”

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith welcomed her clarification about the agreement because to have attempted to amend it “would have opened a can of worms and I recognise that completely”.

Earlier, the Republic’s Europe minister, Helen McEntee, said: “It is not negotiable for us ... to suggest that after only 20 years we would try to amend it or change it, it’s not something that we would consider and not something I think the prime minister would consider.”

DUP MP Gavin Robinson said that his party “do not recognise reports about renegotiating the Belfast Agreement” and added: “I am not aware of anyone seriously suggesting such a step.

“Many of those shouting loudest following today’s speculative media reports, were strangely silent about how the backstop rides a coach and horses through the Belfast Agreement by effectively redrawing the border.”