May puts up a brave front, says sacking her as UK PM won’t help

LONDON: Putting up a determined facade in the face of growing opposition, Theresa May on Sunday insisted that getting rid of her as Conservative leader and prime minister will not help make it easier for Brexit to be delivered, adding she was ready for another “critical week”.

Leading lights in the Brexit imbroglio went on Sunday television and radio circuit to put forth their contending positions that are likely to trigger a political crisis in the near future.

While May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared on Sky News, the latest Brexit secretary to resign, Dominic Raab, and Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon went on BBC.

Current numbers in the House of Commons mean the agreement May has secured in Brussels will be voted down, taking the UK into uncertain territory.

There was little further movement, except that the required number of 48 Conservative MPS to trigger a leadership contest against May is yet to be achieved. Her critics insist they will reach there next week.

May said that to her knowledge the threshold of 48 letters had not been reached, asking her party critics to think again: “It is not going to make the (Brexit) negotiations any easier and it won’t change the parliamentary arithmetic.”

Asked if she had considered stepping down, May said: “No, I haven’t. Of course it has been a tough week. Actually these negotiations have been tough right from the start, but they were always going to get even more difficult right toward the end when we are coming to that conclusion”.

But the next seven days, she added, “are going to be critical”, when she would travel to Brussels.

The European Council has scheduled a special session to formalise and approve the controversial withdrawal agreement on November 25.

Reflecting resilience in the face of trenchant criticism bordering on the personal that has won her new supporters, May admitted that politics is a “tough business”, adding she had been in it for a long time.