Ahead of Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May's key parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal next Tuesday, a committee of lawmakers responsible for scrutinizing the deal slammed it as "a huge step into the unknown", the latest blow to her efforts to win parliamentary approval for the bill.
The cross-party Committee on Exiting the European Union (EU), in a report published on Sunday, said "[the deal] does not give the British people or our businesses the clarity and the certainty they need about our future trading relationship with the EU in five or ten years'time."
A summary of the report listed over a dozen problems with the deal in its current form including the backstop – the mechanism intended to ensure there is no return to a hard border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, an element of the deal which has come in for some of the heaviest lawmaker criticism.
"Activating the backstop would result in immediate barriers to UK-EU trade in goods and services ...the UK could face the threat of significant economic disruption which would reduce its leverage in the negotiations," the report said.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May (C) speaks during the weekly question and answer session in the House of Commons in London, December 5, 2018. /VCG Photo
On Saturday, a close ally of Theresa May, Amber Rudd, became the first cabinet minister to float a possible Plan B to May's deal while May insisted that her deal is the only one on the table and that the alternatives are a painful "no-deal" exit from the EU or possibly no Brexit at all.
Amber Rudd, the work and pensions minister, said a Norway-style relationship with the bloc might also offer a way out of the current deadlock.
"If it (May's plan) doesn't get through anything could happen: people's vote, Norway plus, any of these options could come forward," she told BBC radio on Saturday.
Norway is not an EU member but is in the bloc's single market, which allows for free movement of goods, capital, services and people. "Norway Plus" envisages Britain also staying in the EU's customs union, which Norway is not in.
May's spokesman said on Friday the vote would go ahead next week despite calls from some lawmakers for a delay.