UK cabinet backs draft Brexit deal

British Prime Minister Theresa May won the support of her cabinet on Wednesday for a draft divorce deal with the European Union that has put both Brexit and her leadership at stake.

May emerged from a fivehour meeting with ministers that had sent the value of the pound gyrating to announce she had full backing to move ahead with her Brexit plan.

“The collective decision of cabinet was that the government should agree the draft withdrawal agreement and the outline political declaration,” May said outside her Downing Street office.

But the embattled leader conceded that she could face even stronger resistance when she takes the text to parliament for approval in December.

Rumours of cabinet resignations and a plot by eurosceptic MPs in May’s own party to unseat her saw the pound plunge 1% in a wild hour of swings.

May said she engaged in an impassioned debate with her ministers – and that there “will be difficult days ahead”.

“This is a decision that will come under intense scrutiny and that is entirely as it should be and entirely understandable,” she said in reference to the parliament vote.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was due to give a statement later last night following May’s announcement.

The framework agreement announced on Tuesday capped a year-and-a-half of negotiations aimed at unwinding nearly 46 years of British EU membership.

Suffering economic uncertainty in the wake of the global financial crisis and fearing an influx of migrants, Britons voted by a 52-48 margin in June 2016 to break from Brussels.

Britain and the EU are now set to hold a Brexit summit on November 25.

Appearing before the House of Commons earlier on Wednesday, May confronted the anger of both those who want a cleaner break with Brussels and those who think Brexit is a disaster.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party who is seeking early elections, called the entire negotiations process “shambolic”.

“This government spent two years negotiating a bad deal that will leave the country in an indefinite halfway house,” he said.

And Conservative Party MP Peter Bone, a leading eurosceptic, accused May of “not delivering what the Brexit people voted for”.

“Today you will lose the support of many Conservative MPs and millions of voters,” he warned the British leader.

Angry Brexit supporters and critics rallied outside May’s office as she tried to get her disgruntled ministers to line up behind the deal.

“It sells out the country completely. We will be a vassal state of the EU,” Lucy Harris, who founded the Leavers of London group, said.

More ominously, the Northern Irish party propping up May’s government threatened to break their alliance over leaks about a special arrangement for the British province.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster said she expected to be briefed about the deal by May late on Wednesday, warning that “there will be consequences” if the leaks were true.

An EU official said the final deal includes a so-called backstop in which the whole UK will remain in a customs arrangement with the EU.

Northern Ireland would have special status under the proposals, meaning that some checks may be required between Northern Ireland and the rest of the country.