May tells critics: Fall in line or Forget Brexit
birmingham — British Prime Minister Theresa May battled to unite her Conservative Party on Wednesday, telling critics to abandon their dreams of a “perfect” Brexit and “come together” as divorce negotiations with the European Union enter their tough final phase.
May took on her detractors in a punchy address to the party’s annual conference, a day after a rival, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, challenged her authority with a crowd-pleasing speech of his own.
“If we all go off in different directions in pursuit of our own visions of the perfect Brexit, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all,” May said in a warning to Johnson and others who aim to oust her or force her to change course.
“A Brexit that might make Britain stronger 50 years from now is no good to you if it makes your life harder today,” she noted.
Britain’s governing party is deeply divided over the country’s impending departure from the EU, with pro- and anti-EU camps both criticising the prime minister’s negotiations with the bloc.
With just under six months until Britain leaves the EU on March 29, the speech on Wednesday was an attempt by May to solve her Brexit conundrum.
The EU has rejected her proposed Brexit deal and demanded new ideas from Britain. But proBrexit members of May’s Conservative government oppose any softening of the UK’s stance.
So the negotiations with the EU have ground to a halt, UK businesses are growing jittery and Conservative Brexiteers like Johnson are demanding that the UK make a clean break with the bloc — deal or no deal.
Less than three weeks before a make-or-break EU summit in Brussels, May said divorce talks were entering their “toughest phase”. But she rejected calls by Eurosceptics to walk away from the talks, saying that “leaving without a deal — introducing tariffs and costly checks at the border — would be a bad outcome for the UK and the EU”. —
If we all go off in different directions in pursuit of our own visions of the perfect Brexit, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all
Theresa May,
British Prime Minister
birmingham — British Prime Minister Theresa May appealed to her Conservative Party on Wednesday to unite behind her plan to leave the European Union, warning critics their arguments could put Brexit in jeopardy.
On the final day of her party’s annual conference, May sought to rally members by addressing their concerns that the Conservatives are becoming increasingly directionless under the weight of Brexit, urging them to look to a brighter future.
Dancing onto the stage in the city of Birmingham to ABBA’s Dancing
Queen and a standing ovation, May poked fun at herself after her dance moves were mocked on a trip to Africa and after last year’s conference when her speech was disrupted by a coughing fit, a stage intruder and a collapsing background set.
It was a warm welcome for a leader whose fragile position at the helm of her party has come under further pressure after the EU rejected parts of her so-called Chequers plan and critics stepped up calls for her to ditch her strategy on Brexit,
With just six months before Britain is due to exit the EU, she has so far weathered the Brexit storm, shrugging off a barnstorming speech by her ex-foreign minister Boris Johnson that did little to hide his leadership ambitions. On Wednesday, May was keen to show she was in charge of the Brexit talks. “If we all go off in different directions in pursuit of our own vision of the perfect Brexit, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all,” she said, a rebuff to eurosceptic lawmakers who have published their alternatives plan for leaving the EU.
“And there’s another reason why we need to come together. We are entering the toughest part of the negotiations...If we stick together and hold our nerve, I know we can get a deal that delivers for Britain,” she added. —