LONDON: Theresa May is heading to Brussels later ahead of a special EU summit to formally sign off the Brexit deal.
The prime minister will hold talks with top EU officials, before leaders of the remaining 27 EU countries meet to endorse the agreement on Sunday.
However, Spain has said it will not attend unless a last-minute spat over Gibraltar is sorted out. Even if the EU approves the deal, Mrs May must still persuade enough MPs to support it, which may prove difficult. The UK is scheduled to depart the EU on 29 March 2019.
The terms of the UK’s withdrawal have been under negotiation since June 2016 following a referendum in which 51.9% voted to leave the EU. Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP – which Mrs May relies on for support in Parliament -will reiterate her opposition of the dealáat her party conference later.
She has threatened to look again at the confidence-and-supply agreement with the Conservatives if it gets through Parliament. However, DUP Chief Whip Jeffrey Donaldson denied the party would walk away from its agreement with the government.
But he told Radio 4’s Today programme the party was “very unhappy” with the withdrawal agreement. He said it should be one that “everybody can support” and if voted down, he felt the PM would have to go back to Brussels and renegotiate.
