May calls for Brexit unity
Prime Minister Theresa May called on her party on Sunday to unite behind her plan to leave the European Union, making a direct appeal to critics by saying their desire for a free trade deal was at the heart of her Brexit proposals.
At the start of what is set to be one of the Conservative Party’s stormiest annual conferences, May’s plans were once again attacked by two former ministers, with former foreign secretary Boris Johnson calling them deranged.
Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, the debate over how to leave the bloc is still raging in the centre-right Conservative Party, and even in the government.
May’s already fragile leadership was put under further pressure in September when the EU rejected parts of the socalled Chequers plan.
But she put a positive spin on those talks, saying she was ready to consider the EU’s concerns. “My message to my party is let’s come together and get the best deal for Britain,” May told the BBC in Birmingham.
“At the heart of the Chequers plan is a free trade deal, a free trade area and frictionless trade ... Chequers is the only plan on the table that delivers on the Brexit vote ... and also delivers for the people of Northern Ireland.”
May has shown little sign of shifting away from her Chequers plan despite growing criticism that her proposals offer the worst of all worlds.
Johnson, who quit May’s cabinet after Chequers was agreed, called her plans deranged and attacked her for not believing in Brexit.
He and former Brexit minister David Davis are pushing for a Canada-style free trade deal, which May says will split Northern Ireland from mainland Britain by making the British province adhere to different customs rules.