LONDON, March 12 -- Prime Minister Theresa May was heading for defeat on Tuesday on her plans to leave the European Union as sceptical members of her own party appeared ready to defy her warning that Britain might not leave the EU at all if they voted against her. Hours before a 1900 GMT vote on the deal in parliament, May had failed to win over the main Brexit faction in her own party, while Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government, said it would vote “no”. Nonetheless, a hoarse prime minister defended her plan as a good deal compared to a series of unattractive alternatives. The main pro-Brexit faction in May’s party, the European Research Group, said it did not recommend voting for her deal. Former foreign minister Boris Johnson, one of the leaders of the Brexit campaign, said May’s deal was dead and Britain should now leave the EU without an agreement to cushion the effects. “This deal has now reached the end of the road. If it is rejected tonight, I hope that it will be put to bed,” he told parliament. The main sticking point is the so-called Irish border backstop, an insurance policy aimed at avoiding controls on the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland after Brexit. Brexit-supporting lawmakers expressed suspicion at the haste of May’s last-minute assurances and suggested a delay to allow sufficient analysis of them and Cox’s advice. Nigel Dodds, the DUP’s parliamentary leader, said the assurances would still trap the United Kingdom in the EU’s orbit. For its part, the EU fears that if there is no backstop, an open border between the United Kingdom and Ireland will amount to an open door into the EU’s single market. If lawmakers vote down May’s deal again, they will be given a vote on Wednesday on leaving without a deal, for which there is little support in parliament. If they turn down that option they will vote on Thursday on delaying Brexit. May said there was no guarantee the EU would agree to a delay.
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