Jim Allister: If EU refuses further negotiations then it will have guaranteed no deal

The European Union can parrot as often as it likes that the deal is done, but the legal reality is very different: there is no deal until it is ratified and the United Kingdom has rightly refused ratification.
By Jim Allister
Published 30th Jan 2019, 20:30 BST
Updated 7th Feb 2019, 20:03 BST
MPs gather for the result of a vote on Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Conservative MP Nick Boles amendment to the prime minister's Brexit deal in the House of Commons on Tuesday January 29, 2019. Jim Allister says that Brexiteers in Parliament and elsewhere, in the name of 17.4 million people, must ensure the government calls EUs bluff. Photo: PA WireMPs gather for the result of a vote on Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Conservative MP Nick Boles amendment to the prime minister's Brexit deal in the House of Commons on Tuesday January 29, 2019. Jim Allister says that Brexiteers in Parliament and elsewhere, in the name of 17.4 million people, must ensure the government calls EUs bluff. Photo: PA Wire
MPs gather for the result of a vote on Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Conservative MP Nick Boles amendment to the prime minister's Brexit deal in the House of Commons on Tuesday January 29, 2019. Jim Allister says that Brexiteers in Parliament and elsewhere, in the name of 17.4 million people, must ensure the government calls EUs bluff. Photo: PA Wire

If, therefore, the EU persists in refusing further negotiations, then it will be the EU that guarantees no deal. Their choice.

The job of Brexiteers in Parliament and elsewhere, in the name of 17.4 million people, is now to ensure the government at last holds the line and calls the EU’s bluff.

Mrs May will be judged by delivery on her pledge of real change to the legal text of the draft Withdrawal Agreement.

If the EU chooses no deal, then so be it.

Jim Allister, MLA, TUV leader

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