BRUSSELS — British Prime Minister Theresa May clashed Friday in Brussels with fellow European leaders and came away without any new concessions to help convince her rebellious Parliament to approve a divorce deal splitting Britain from the European Union.
Her last-ditch trip to E.U. headquarters came after she fought back a no-confidence vote from her party earlier in the week.
May pleaded for adjustments that she said would help sweeten the Brexit agreement for her Tory backbenchers and allow an orderly withdrawal in March. Instead, she found a stony reception from fellow E.U. leaders, who stripped out conciliatory language from a declaration they released after an hour of contentious back-and-forth with her.
The frustration was captured on camera on Friday morning. May approached European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, as leaders milled around before sitting down for their meetings. Juncker, the night before, denounced the British debate over Brexit as “nebulous.” May stared him down in a rare moment of public anger between two nominal allies before the tense interchange was broken up by another European leader.
“I was crystal clear” about British requests, May told reporters afterward, hitting back at European complaints that her requests did not add up.
She said she had a “robust discussion” with Juncker. “I think that’s the sort of discussion you’re able to have when you’ve developed a working relationship and you work well together.”
She painted the European declarations as an important first step that would help her at home.
“Those take us forward. Those are welcome. This is the clearest statement we’ve heard yet from the European Union that it’s their intention for the backstop never to be necessary,” May said of a late-night statement from the 27 other leaders of the European Union that simply repeated the substance of the already-agreed deal.
But other European leaders offered a far less rosy picture. — and May’s domestic opponents seized on the skepticism.
“The last 24 hours have shown that Theresa May’s Brexit deal is dead in the water,” opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted. “She’s failed to deliver any meaningful changes. Rather than ploughing ahead and recklessly running down the clock, she needs to put her deal to a vote next week so Parliament can take back control.”
Many European leaders said they would welcome a proposal from May that could actually shift the debate in Britain, so long as it adheres to European redlines.
“The signals we got yesterday are not particularly reassuring,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. He said he was directing his government to step up preparations for Britain’s crashing out of the European Union without any deal at all, a prospect that could unleash economic and humanitarian chaos on Europe.
“The 27 member states have given assurances that are contained in the conclusions of yesterday,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters. “That is what we have put on the table and now we expect Great Britain to respond. We are all preparing for the eventuality of a disorderly Brexit, which is something we will be working hard to prevent from happening.
Diplomats vented frustration after the talks, saying they had little appetite to throw concessions at May when she could not guarantee that it would actually make a difference in her Parliament, which appears dead-set against the deal as currently formulated.
“Here, she is asking us to draft a document that could in principle help her for the approval on her side,” said one diplomat involved in the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to sum up the day. “But we have no guarantees that it will be enough and that she will not come back in January with other demands,” the diplomat said. “So leaders basically said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ ”
“European leaders reneged on promise to help Theresa May,” read a headline in the Times of London.
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