UPDATE 1-EU's Verhofstadt: closer ties after Brexit could overcome backstop impasse

The European Union is ready to have a closer relationship with the United Kingdom after Brexit so that the contentious Irish border backstop would never have to be used, the Brexit pointman for the bloc's parliament said. Speaking after he met British Prime Minister Theresa May, in Brussels to demand that the backstop is removed from the Brexit deal, Guy Verhofstadt said the bloc could only upgrade the accompanying declaration on their new relationship.

"It's important that Mrs. May today in the meeting assured us that there will be a backstop," Verhofstadt told journalists. "Our proposal is to try to solve the problem in the political declaration." Verhofstadt said a no-deal Brexit would spell "disaster" in both the UK and the EU and that May's cooperation with Britain's opposition Labour party - which wants a permanent customs union with the bloc after Brexit - was essential to overcoming that risk.

"It's important now that this leads to a position in the UK that has the broadest possible majority so that we can conclude this negotiation," Verhofstadt said. "If we go towards a customs union, the backstop will never be used." EU leaders have repeatedly said it would be impossible to replace the backstop, because it is required to ensure no hard border, once a focus for sectarian violence, between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland. (Additional reporting by Clare Roth, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by John Stonestreet)