A modern-day Chamberlain? PM is savaged by LBC callers
THERESA May was accused of being a “modern-day Chamberlain” as callers to a radio phone-in savaged her Brexit deal.
The Prime Minister was told she must quit and let a Brexiteer take over after “appeasing” Brussels instead of standing up for the country.
Appearing on LBC’s Nick Ferrari Show after a turbulent week that saw a string of ministers quit over the “divorce” deal, Mrs May told listeners the plans delivered on Brexit.
But she was confronted by caller John, from Gillingham, who likened her to Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister who claimed to have secured “peace for our time” in negotiations with Hitler, only for the Second World War to break out the following year.
He asked the PM: “Do you consider yourself the modern-day Chamberlain, who also went to Europe and negotiated with a foreign power and came back having appeased that foreign power and not stood up for our country? I would like you to stand up for our country and stand up for what’s best for our country. Appeasing a foreign power and locking us in forever is not doing that.”
Mrs May replied: “No I don’t, and the reason is this: We are not going to be locked in forever to something that we don’t want.”
Another caller said it appeared the EU had “got the better deal” in negotiations and suggested Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is attempting to topple the PM, should take the keys to No 10.
An independent councillor who described himself as “Conservative-minded” also called on Mrs May to stand down, saying he “commended” her efforts to strike a deal but “sadly that has not worked”.
Mrs May hoped to use the half-hour phone-in to sell the exit deal to voters after it was shredded by many in her party.
While she was battling to win over public support, Tory MPs continued to speak out about their concerns.
Mrs May dismissed suggestions that ministers could be offered a free vote when the Brexit deal goes before Parliament.
As well as battling against a very public bid by backbench Brexiteers to oust her, Mrs May was also struggling to keep her pact together with the Democratic Unionist Party that secures their support in Commons votes.
Testy
Mrs May said she recognised there were fears about the backstop plans to prevent the need for an Irish hard border and admitted she had “some of those concerns myself”.
Denying she had been involved in a “testy exchange” with party leader Arlene Foster she conceded the DUP were yet to be won over.
“Every individual MP will decide how they will vote, whether they are DUP, Conservative, Labour,” she said. “My job is to persuade first and foremost my Conservative benches, those who are working with us - the DUP are working with us, obviously, confidence and supply – but I want to be able to say to every MP I believe this is the best deal for the UK.”