LONDON, May 2, 2018 (Reuters) - Pro-Brexit members of parliament heaped pressure on British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday over her future customs plans with the European Union, calling on her to drop what some say is her preferred proposal. May's decision to leave the EU's customs union, which sets tariffs for goods imported into the bloc, has become one of the main flashpoints in the Brexit debate in Britain, pitting companies and pro-EU campaigners against a vocal group of hardline eurosceptic MPs. With the added pressure of trying to prevent the return of a "hard" border in Ireland and find something Brussels might agree to, May has delayed putting any firm plans for future customs arrangements on the table, hoping to plot a route that could at least please more than one side. Pro-Brexit MPs called on May to drop one of her proposals which would see Britain essentially act as the EU's tariff collector. Members of the European Research Group, a group of Brexit MPs in May's Conservative Party, said they were not issuing her an ultimatum with their demands, rather presenting their argument that such a customs partnership would not work. "It is more of a statement of our position, with supporting arguments," a member of the ERG said. May is not only under pressure at home. She also faces increasingly urgent demands from Brussels to come up with a customs plan to avoid a return to a hard border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. There are fears that reintroducing checks on what will be Britain's only land border with the EU could reignite sectarian violence.
