PM May asks EU leaders to guarantee post-Brexit trade deal to be effective in 2021

The European Union refused a British request for a legal guarantee that a post-Brexit trade deal would go into effect in 2021 as it would have potentially rendered the Northern Ireland backstop inoperable, Ireland's prime minister said on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May asked EU leaders for a guarantee that a new EU-UK trade deal would take effect in 2021 even if EU parliaments had not ratified it, Leo Varadkar told the Irish parliament.

"If we were to give it, the European Union could find itself in breach and the responsibility for avoiding a hard (Irish) border, in that case, would potentially shift to the European Union rather than the United Kingdom," he said. "It would potentially render the backstop inoperable."