European Parliament member says May assured of Irish backstop agreement

The European Parliament's Brexit point man, Guy Verhofstadt, said that British Prime Minister Theresa May had on Thursday reassured the European Union that there will be a backstop to prevent a hard border in Ireland in their divorce agreement. Verhofstadt said a no-deal Brexit would spell "disaster" in both the UK and the EU and that May's cooperation with the opposition Labour party was essential to overcoming that risk. "So it's important that Mrs. May today in the meeting assured us that there will be a backstop. That what she said already in Belfast, there is no question to remove the backstop," Verhofstadt said.