Monday 21 January 2019 9:54 am | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 3:22 am

Ireland will not negotiate with UK over Brexit backstop, says minister

Sterling dipped this morning as Ireland said it would not negotiate separately with the UK over Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

The Prime Minister was hoping to sign a treaty with Ireland to remove the so-called Irish backstop from her unpopular withdrawal agreement, according to The Sunday Times.

But despite the DUP saying today that direct talks between itself and the Irish government would prove useful, the Republic of Ireland appears to have ruled this out.

“What we can't do and what we won't do, because we have not throughout this entire process, is engage in any kind of bilateral negotiations with the DUP or any other political party in Northern Ireland or the UK,” Ireland’s European affairs minister Helen McEntee told RTE this morning.

“This is a negotiation between the EU and the UK.”

The pound fell from 1.287 against the dollar this morning to as low as 1.284 following the statement.

It comes as May prepares to present her Brexit “Plan B” to parliament at 3.30pm today, ahead of a vote on the deal on 29 January.

Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg said on LBC that a no-deal Brexit is the most likely outcome after May’s withdrawal agreement fell to a historic defeat in parliament earlier this month, losing by 230 votes.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair last week claimed it was “inevitable” that Brexit will be delayed as May seeks to win changes to her deal to get a different version of it through parliament.

Attempts to reach a compromise Brexit vision with Labour have not worked, and May is now reportedly trying to win over rebel MPs in the Tory party.

The Prime Minister is even considering changing the Good Friday Agreement that stopped decades of violence in Northern Ireland, according to the Daily Telegraph.

May is still hoping to secure concessions from Brussels that can persuade rebel MPs to back her deal, according to the Times.