Prime minister Theresa May has said she will continue talking to the DUP and others who have concerns about the Irish border backstop. She told MPs that she will then take the conclusions of those discussions back to the EU. The backstop is the "insurance policy" in the withdrawal deal. It aims to ensure that, whatever else happens, there will be no return to a visible border between NI and the Irish Republic after the UK leaves the EU. The prime minister set out her "plan B" way forward on Brexit in the House of Commons, amid deadlock over a proposed deal. Mrs May also said she wanted to be "absolutely clear" that, despite some media speculation, the government would not reopen the Good Friday Agreement. "I've never considered doing so and neither will I," she said. Mrs May set out six issues she is seeking to address either in her Brexit deal or in the next phase of negotiations. She also said the government would seek to give devolved nations a bigger role in the second phase of negotiations. Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for almost two years, but Mrs May said she will seek to see how elected politicians from Northern Ireland could be part of that process. Mrs May is making a statement to MPs on the way forward on Brexit after her planned deal was rejected by MPs last week. She hopes to win over Tory Brexiteer MPs and Northern Ireland's DUP, by resolving their concerns over the "backstop" plan for the Irish border. The backstop is a position of last resort, to maintain an open border on the island of Ireland in the event that the UK leaves the EU without securing an all-encompassing deal. At present, goods and services are traded between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland with few restrictions.   Earlier, Ireland's foreign minister rejected a proposal from his Polish counterpart for a five-year limit to the Brexit backstop. Simon Coveney said he made it clear to Jacek Czaputowicz last month that setting a time limit was unacceptable. He said he did not think the proposal reflected EU thinking. "I made it very clear that putting a time limit on an insurance mechanism, which is what the backstop is, effectively means that it's not a backstop at all," Mr Coveney said. AFP.