Britain’s Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis (L) and European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier wait in a press room at the EC headquarters in Brussels, Belgium December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman
December 10, 2017
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis described the government’s pledge to prevent any return to a hard border with Ireland after Britain leaves the European Union as “a statement of intent” rather than a legally binding move.
Britain secured an initial deal to move Brexit talks to a second phase last week, by agreeing terms on how much the country should pay to leave the EU, on citizens’ rights and the tricky issue of Northern Ireland’s border with Ireland, where London agreed a fallback of regulatory “alignment” with the EU.
“This was a statement of intent more than anything else. It was much more a statement of intent than it was a legally enforceable thing,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Toby Chopra)
