Uncertainty looms over Britain as Brexit compromise talks fail

LONDON — Talks between Britain’s Conservative government and the opposition Labor Party seeking a compromise over Brexit broke down without agreement Friday, plunging the country back into a morass of uncertainty over its departure from the European Union.

Each side blamed the other for the collapse. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the talks with Prime Minister Theresa May’s government had “gone as far as they can.”

“We have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us,” Corbyn said in a letter to May.

And with May set to announce within weeks that she plans to step down, Corbyn said divisions within the ruling Conservative Party meant “it’s a government that is negotiating with no authority and no ability, that I can see, to actually deliver anything.”

But May said divisions within the Labor Party had contributed to the breakdown.

“In particular, we have not been able to overcome the fact that there isn’t a common position in Labor about whether they want to deliver Brexit or hold a second referendum, which could reverse it,” she said.

May’s spokesman, James Slack, confirmed the two sides had not reached “complete agreement” and that no further talks were planned.

The two sides have held weeks of negotiations to try to agree upon terms for Brexit that can win support in Parliament. The talks began after British lawmakers rejected May’s divorce deal with the EU three times.

But the Conservatives and the left-of-center Labor differ on how close an economic relationship to seek with the EU after Britain leaves the bloc. Labor wants to stick close to EU rules in order to guarantee seamless trade, while the government wants a looser relationship that would leave Britain freer to strike new trade deals around the world.

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