A debate on customs and taxation after Brexit in the UK's House of Commons is expected to conclude late this Monday night, with a vote on amendments proposed by hardline supporters of Brexit within Prime Minister May's Conservative Party.

British media reports that her government will accept four amendments widely seen as inconsistent with the soft Brexit approach adopted in the white paper on the implementation of Brexit presented by the UK on Friday.

The amendments add conditions to proposed UK-EU customs collaboration and oppose the possibility of Northern Ireland remaining attached to the EU trading bloc if this is not the case for the rest of the UK.

By contrast, the white paper proposes integration between the UK and the EU in the collection of import taxes, a "common rulebook" for the trade of goods and a so-called backstop to ensure there would be no border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in case of a hard Brexit.

Dead in the water

Prime Minister May denied suggestions in the House of Commons that the white paper was "dead in the water" after she accepted the amendments. "I would not have gone through all the work that I did to ensure that we reached that agreement only to see it changed in some way through these bills," she told MPs.

The vote comes as talks on the content of the white paper opened this Monday between British and European negotiators in Brussels. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has not yet commented on the white paper itself, but warned that the whole package of rules governing the EU's single market for goods and services was to be taken as a block and could not be cherry-picked.

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