David Lidington comments
- Would have been surprising if EU leaders agreed everything at council meeting
- EU leaders gave a "very, very clear" commitment to negotiate trade deal quickly
- May is to spend next days and weeks to talk further with EU counterparts
- To also seek assurances that are needed by parliament
The fact that he says here that European leaders are choosing to opt to give clarification on the backstop and not straight up give the UK the legal assurances needed is the real concern.
The Brexit legal advice shows that once the backstop is in place, it will endure up until a trade deal is agreed to supersede it. But negotiations on that trade deal could see the UK be put in a situation where there are repeated and 'indefinite' rounds of trade talks before an accord is struck.
An assurance to "negotiate that trade deal quickly" is most certainly not the same as any legal assurance to confirm that the backstop has a fixed end date, and this will be a key sticking point in discussions to come between May and European leaders I reckon.
