May takes pot-shot at plotters

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday told the plotters planning to overthrow her that their alternative Brexit plans would not resolve all their problems with her draft deal.

May is fighting to salvage her proposed Brexit agreement – and her job – after a tumultuous week in which four ministers resigned, MPs slammed the proposal and members of her own party tried to oust her.

But she insisted there was no better option on the table and any alternative plans would still not conjure up a solution to keeping open the border with the Irish Republic.

“People say ‘If you could only just do something slightly different, have a Norway model or a Canada model, this backstop issue would go away’. It would not. That issue is still going to be there,” she told the Daily Mail newspaper.

“It’s not everybody’s ideal deal. You were never going to get that.

“The job of prime minister is to make tough decisions which are not always black or white. I have to find a way through, what best suits everybody’s needs.”

May received the backing of Michael Gove and Liam Fox, the last remaining proBrexit heavyweights in her cabinet.

But the pair and three other cabinet Eurosceptics – Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt and Chris Grayling – were meeting over the weekend to try and force the prime minister to change her Brexit plans, the BBC and The Daily Telegraph newspaper said.

Leadsom said there was still “more to be done” on the deal.

She told Sky News television she was “absolutely determined to support the PM in getting the best possible deal for the UK as we leave the EU”.

“There is still more to be done and we do still have more time before the EU Council at the end of the month so I’m absolutely committed to getting the Brexit that 17.4 million people voted for,” she added.

May could yet face a vote of no confidence from her own MPs.

At least 48 Conservative MPs are required to submit letters of no confidence in the party leader to trigger a vote, and 23 have publicly confirmed they had done so.

Scottish secretary David Mundell pledged his support for May amid what he called the “unprecedented onslaught”.

Mundell said he has reservations about the draft deal but other alternatives were “even more unpalatable”. – AFP