May: This is no Brexit sell-out

As PM faces showdown with furious Tory backbenchers on Chequers deal...

THERESA May will today insist she has chosen the ‘right Brexit for Britain’ as she tries to quell a backbench revolt.

Eurosceptics have accused her of selling out the 17.4 million voters who backed leave with the ‘soft Brexit’ plan agreed by her cabinet at chequers on Friday.

Such is the level of tory backbench anger, Mrs May will today issue an extraordinary point-by-point rebuttal of their attacks.

the Prime Minister will tonight urge the conservative Party to ‘stand united’ behind her in a showdown meeting with backbenchers, who said Mrs May must win them over or face immediate moves to oust her as leader. it came as:

eurosceptics plotting against the Prime Minister claimed MPs have begun sending no-confidence letters, which will trigger a leadership contest if 48 are received;

Backbench tories urged pro-Brexit ministers to resign to show their opposition to the plan;

Brexiteer ministers blamed each other for their failure at chequers to reject the plan;

EU diplomats accused the Government of taking a ‘have cake and eat it’ approach and warned Mrs May that she will have to water down her proposals even further;

Mrs May has phoned european leaders over the past few days to win support, with plans for a tour of EU capitals ahead of the summer break;

tory eurosceptic Jacob rees-Mogg criticised the new Brexit blueprint but said he had no ambitions to replace Mrs May as Prime Minister;

MPs voiced fears that the post-Brexit immigration policy will be largely similar to current arrangements, with one saying: ‘it’s a bit woolly on the immigration side.’ Mrs May will argue her plan is ‘the right Brexit’ as she faces MPs in the commons this afternoon, before addressing the 1922 committee of tory backbenchers tonight.

She will say: ‘in the two years since the referendum result... i have listened to every possible idea and every possible version of Brexit. this is the right Brexit.’

critics have voiced concerns about how under Mrs May’s plan, British goods will still follow rules from Brussels, with a continued role for the european court of Justice.

But the Prime Minister will argue that her plan respects the referendum result, saying: ‘this is the Brexit that is in our national interest. it is the Brexit that will deliver on the democratic decision of the British people.’

Mrs May will also hit back at claims that the plan could hinder Britain’s ability to strike trade deals after Brexit, saying: ‘they are wrong. When we have left the EU the UK will have our own independent trade policy.’

Mrs May will say her plan will mean ‘a complete end to freedom of movement, taking back control of our borders’ as well as ‘no more sending vast sums of money each year to the EU’ and ‘the freedom to strike new trade deals around the world’. Over the weekend, chief Whip Julian Smith and Mrs May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell held meetings with dozens of tory MPs to explain the plan so they can ‘go out and sell it’. it came as an expert in european law produced a damning analysis of the new plan.

the briefing by Martin Howe Qc, chairman of pro-Brexit group lawyers for Britain, concluded: ‘these proposals... lead directly to a worst-of-all-worlds ‘Black Hole’ Brexit where the UK is stuck permanently as a vassal state in the EU’s legal and regulatory tarpit.’

environment Secretary Michael Gove, a leading figure in the Brexit campaign, urged tory eurosceptics to ‘get behind the Prime Minister’.

Asked if the plan was everything he hoped for, Mr Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘no, but then i’m a realist and one of the things about politics is you mustn’t, you shouldn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.’

But backbench tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘i can’t support the offer which emerged at chequers – i think it’s a breach of the red lines.’

Under conservative Party rules, 15 per cent of their MPs – a total of 48 – must write to the chairman of the 1922 committee expressing no- confidence in the Prime Minister to trigger a leadership contest.

eurosceptic backbenchers last night claimed that several letters had been submitted.

HOW very long ago and how very far away it feels since that historic day in 2016 when Britain voted to leave the european Union.

it all seemed so simple then — and so right. We would throw off the shackles of the overweening Brussels bureaucracy and take back control of our borders, our money, our trade and our laws.

the previous four decades of servitude to an ever more intrusive, antidemocratic superstate would be consigned to the dustbin of history, and we would reclaim our rightful status as a proud sovereign nation.

And despite the sneers of the chattering classes, this was no retreat into some shrivelled, blimpish ‘ Little Britain’ mentality. on the contrary.

While retaining good neighbourly relations with europe, we would look to the wider world with renewed verve and confidence, rekindling old alliances and forging new ones with emerging nations across the globe. there could be no backsliding. Brexit meant Brexit.

two years on from those heady days, the picture is very different — and infinitely more blurred.

Yes, theresa may’s Chequers blueprint for our future relationship with Brussels was a triumph of party management, achieving the seemingly impossible feat of uniting Cabinet eurosceptics and Remainers behind it without a single resignation (for now at least).

indeed, within hours of the meeting, senior ministers from opposing sides of the argument were queuing up to write effusive joint pieces in the weekend papers extolling the virtues of the proposed deal. But behind this well- choreographed

coup de theatre, the big question remains: will it genuinely deliver Brexit? or is it — as arch-eurosceptic Jacob Rees-mogg believes — that worst of all worlds, Brexit in name only?

the full White Paper is yet to be published. But the detail we know so far contains dark portents of what some Brexiteers will see as appeasement. A ‘common rulebook’ for the import and export of goods would provide for frictionless trade. But it would also keep us bound to great swathes of EU red tape and could restrict our ability to strike new trade deals.

A ‘facilitated customs agreement’ may solve the irish border problem. But it would also mean Britain collecting tariffs for Brussels on those goods which passed through the UK on their way into europe — a messy and bureaucratic arrangement at best.

So yes, there are troubling questions raised by these proposals. Perhaps the biggest question of all is whether Brussels will even accept them. And if it doesn’t, what are we going to do about it?

Diluted as it may be, the document still represents a threat to the european project. Although some of mrs may’s original red lines have become a little pinker, she remains committed to the end of free movement, some autonomy over new trade deals and the ultimate primacy of British courts. Resiling further from any of those principles would be a fatal miscalculation.

initial polling on the Chequers deal suggests that most voters are prepared to back it — even though they also regard it as a sell-out.

this spirit of forgiveness may owe something to the general euphoria flowing from england’s World Cup heroics. however, it also shows the willingness of the British electorate to swallow some compromise in the interests of reaching a tolerable deal.

But they will not be taken for fools. if mrs may gives any more ground — especially on free movement — she will see that support evaporate. Just observe Angela merkel’s fall from grace after she opened germany’s borders to a million refugees without consultation. Because she rode roughshod over the wishes of those who elected her, she’s now fighting for her political survival — a fight she will probably lose. mrs may must not make the same mistake. the mail doesn’t doubt she is a politician of integrity (truly a rare beast these days) and that she’s battling to keep Brexit on the rails against daunting odds.

the self-inflicted disaster of last year’s election wiped out her majority, and the cynical wrecking tactics of the opposition and fifth columnists in her own ranks have meant she has had to tread cautiously. She has played a difficult hand with considerable skill.

however imperfect, this White Paper provides a negotiating position and one which all but the most eurosceptic tory backbenchers should be able to swallow, however reluctantly. it’s now time to go on the offensive in Brussels.

So far in these so-called negotiations, the only party prepared to negotiate has been the UK. trading on mrs may’s Parliamentary weakness, michel Barnier and his crew have offered nothing but sullen intransigence.

We must get tough. With half the EU in open rebellion over free movement, and the mediterranean nations mired in economic torpor and talking about quitting the single currency, mr Barnier’s hand is nowhere near as strong as he would like to pretend.

if Britain were to crash out with no deal, the EU would lose our £39 billion divorce payment and european business would suffer huge disruption.

true, it would also be bad for Britain in the short term, but if the EU rejects mrs may’s proposals, this is almost certainly where we will end up.

thankfully, even our eeyore- ish Chancellor Philip hammond finally recognises this and has agreed to ‘step up’ preparations. A no- deal scenario may be in no one’s interests, but it’s better than capitulation.

mrs may has set out her Brexit stall and she must now stand firmly behind it. her message to the Brussels bullies must be clear and incontrovertible. We have come a long way down the road of compromise — we will go no further.