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Brexit: 'Real exasperation and frustration' in Brussels

BBC Stephen CrabbBBC
Stephen Crabb said the UK is facing a "difficult few weeks"

There is "near zero appetite" in Brussels for reopening the Brexit withdrawal agreement, a former Welsh secretary said.

Stephen Crabb said there was "real exasperation and frustration" within the EU that MPs voted to request changes.

The Preseli Pembrokeshire Tory MP is part of the Commons Brexit committee.

After visiting Brussels, he predicted a "difficult few weeks" ahead of the UK leaving the EU on 29 March.

Negotiators spent 20 months agreeing the terms of the departure after the country voted to leave in a 2016 referendum.

Last November, an exit deal that included an outline of a future relationship was rubber stamped by the heads of the remaining 27 EU nations who said it was the "best and only deal possible".

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However, after it failed to win approval in the the UK House of Commons, MPs last week voted to request changes.

A working group has been set up and Prime Minister Theresa May intends to return to Brussels and ask that elements - such as the Irish Backstop - are amended.

But following his visit to Brussels on Monday, Mr Crabb sent out a series of tweets, saying support for the backstop in the EU was "very solid" despite attempts by a group of MPs to remove it.

He described "real exasperation and frustration" at what those in Brussels see as contradictory votes by MPs.

"Our committee did an effective job in demonstrating to our guests the spread of views in the Commons and lack of consensus on way forward," he added.

While Mr Crabb said he "heard repeatedly" there was scope for providing greater clarity on the future relationship, the backstop "won't disappear" from the withdrawal agreement.

He said any changes Brussels agreed to in the withdrawal agreement were "unlikely to be enough to get through Commons".

"No great revelations today. Difficult few weeks ahead I suspect as we go round the mountain again with little sign of a way forward," he added.

"I still think the original deal or something v similar is most likely outcome compared to other current options. But will be very late in day and under a cloud of pol and econ [political and economic] crisis."