11/15/18

After a marathon meeting at 10 Downing Street, U. K. Prime Minister Theresa May announced that her cabinet is backing a controversial withdrawal agreement with the European Union.

This is a decisive step which enables us to move on and finalize the deal in the days ahead. These decisions were not taken lightly, but I believe it is a decision that is firmly in the national interest.

All right, we're joined now by NPR's Frank Langfitt in London with the latest. Hey, Frank. Hi, Ailsa.

So explain the significance of the cabinet's decision today on Brexit. This is huge for Theresa May. You know, she's been under so much criticism as prime minister.

Some weren't even sure she'd ever get this far. Now she has a tentative deal with the EU and backing from her cabinet - some of whom were not at all happy with this agreement.

So do we know anything about the details of this draft agreement? We have some general outlines, and more will be coming out later tonight.

But simply put, it keeps the United Kingdom inside an EU customs area indefinitely. And the idea there, at least for the foreseeable future,

is until they can get a new free trade deal or find a way of avoiding building customs checks on the island of Ireland, they're going to stay inside the union.

Now, Brexit of course creates a need for customs on what otherwise, up until now, has been an open border. And that's because the U. K. and the EU will eventually be two separate economies.

Now, even Prime Minister May acknowledges this is not a perfect deal. It's not going to make some people happy at all. But what she's saying is this is the best the U. K. can get.