British PM promises new EU talks in bid to salvage Brexit deal

(London) – Prime Minister Theresa May said she would seek further talks with Brussels to salvage her Brexit deal, but offered no new solutions to break the deadlock, just 10 weeks before Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union.

MPs in the House of Commons last week roundly rejected the divorce terms May has struck with the bloc, raising the risk that Britain crashes out with no deal on March 29.

She responded by opening talks with rival political parties, but in a statement to the Commons on Monday failed to suggest a radically different approach.

May offered guarantees to the opposition Labour party on workers´ rights and promised greater input for lawmakers over future trade talks with the EU.

But she said her focus would be on addressing concerns among her own Conservative MPs and Northern Ireland´s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over the controversial Irish border “backstop” plan in the current deal.

“I will be talking further this week to colleagues — including in the DUP… I will then take the conclusions of those discussion back to the EU,” she told MPs.

She also said she looked forward to exploring in more detail a proposal by Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz to put a five-year time limit on the backstop.