Sterling jumped broadly and remains firm after UK Prime Minister Theresa May secured “legally binding” changes to the Brexit deal after meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France late Monday. May will now go into today’s meaningful vote with nervous hope that the deal would be approved and pave the way to an orderly Brexit. Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn criticized as usual that May’s negotiations had “failed” without “anything approaching the changes” she promised the Parliament. But it would be the legal advice from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, which will be published before the vote, that holds the fate of the updated deal.
Two important agreements were agreed that could “strengthen and improve” both the withdrawal agrement. The most important one is a “joint legally binding instrument.” May believed it could be used to start a “formal dispute” against EU if it tried to keep UK into the backstop indefinitely. And under ruling of an arbitration panel, UK would have “the right to enact a unilateral, proportionate suspension of its obligations under the Withdrawal Agreement”
Secondly, there is another “joint statement” adding to the political declaration. A specific negotiating track would be established given both sides’ to work “at speed” on an agreement by end of 2020 to avoid triggering the Irish backstop. Thirdly, May will put forward a “unilateral declaration” to outline the UK’s position that there was nothing to prevent it from leaving the backstop arrangement if discussions on a future relationship with the EU break down and there is no prospect on an agreement.
