UK PM Theresa May irritated by her challengers

Prime Minister Theresa May used an interview to mark the six-month countdown to Brexit to convey her irritation at speculation in her party about her future, while London mayor Sadiq Khan called for another referendum on EU membership.

Uncertainty has mounted as official and other assessments predict adverse impact on daily life in the United Kingdom if London and Brussels fail to reach a deal on their future relationship. Any such deal can also be potentially voted down by the UK parliament.

The UK is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019, after decades of being a frontline member that influenced and contributed significantly to the bloc. The close 2016 vote to leave the EU, however, has divided the country down the middle.

Speaking to BBC in a special interview to be telecast on Monday, May criticised her former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who has been attacking her Brexit plan outlined in Chequers since resigning in July.

Johnson’s description of her so-called Chequers plan as a ‘suicide vest’ and handing over the ‘detonator’ to Brussels, May said, was “completely inappropriate…I was home secretary for six years, and as prime minister for two years now I think using language like that was not right and it's not language I would have used.” May faces an uneasy time during the forthcoming annual party conference, with several party MPs and others openly discussing her position as leader and prime minister.

May faces an uneasy time during the forthcoming annual party conference, with several party MPs and others openly discussing her position as leader and prime minister.

On the continuing speculation, she said: “I get a little bit irritated but this debate is not about my future. This debate is about the future of the people of the UK and the future of the United Kingdom. That's what I'm focused on and that's what we should all be focused on.

“It's ensuring that we get that good deal from the European Union which is good for people in the UK, wherever they live in the UK, that's what's important for us.”

As business continues to deal with uncertainty over its ability to operate across the EU after Brexit, London mayor Khan wrote in The Observer that the country needs another referendum, since a bad deal would adversely affect the economy.

According to the Labour mayor, since there is little time left to negotiate, now only two outcomes are possible: a bad deal for the UK or no deal at all, which would be even worse. “They are both incredibly risky and I don’t believe Theresa May has the mandate to gamble so flagrantly with the British economy and people’s livelihoods”.

There is no alternative than to give people a chance to stay in the EU, he wrote. “People didn’t vote to leave the EU to make themselves poorer, to watch their businesses suffer, to have NHS wards understaffed, to see the police preparing for civil unrest or for our national security to be put at risk.”

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