May says Trump told her to ‘sue the EU’

Back me or risk ‘no Brexit at all’: PM

London, July 15, (Agencies): US President Donald Trump told British Prime Minister Theresa May she should sue the European Union rather than negotiate with them, she said Sunday.

May said Trump's self-declared "brutal" option in the Brexit negotiations was to sue Brussels, shedding light on his mysterious suggestion that has hung over their talks and his four-day visit to Britain.

"He told me I should sue the EU. Sue the EU," May told BBC television.

The unknown Trump option had been hanging in the air for days.

In an interview with The Sun newspaper on Thursday ahead of his talks with May, Trump said he had told May how to deal with Brussels but she "didn't listen".

In a press conference after their talks Friday, Trump said it had been a suggestion rather than advice.

"I think maybe she found it too brutal," he said, standing alongside May, without revealing the details.

"I could fully understand why she thought it was tough. And maybe someday she'll do that. If they don't make the right deal she may do what I suggested but it's not an easy thing."

And when pressed in a newspaper interview afterwards, Trump still declined to reveal what his suggestion was.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister May warned her divided party on Sunday that there may be "no Brexit at all" if they wrecked her plan to forge a close relationship with the European Union after leaving the world's biggest trading bloc.

"My message to the country this weekend is simple: we need to keep our eyes on the prize," May wrote on Facebook. "If we don't, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all."

Linking the fate of Brexit to her own survival in such an explicit way indicates just how precarious May's position remains after her government was thrust into crisis and US President Donald Trump publicly criticised her Brexit strategy.

With less than nine months to go before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, the country, the political elite and business leaders are still deeply divided over what form Brexit should take.