Tories tell PM Chequers deal ‘dead as dodo’
THERESA May has been warned by her own party members that her Brexit plan is “as dead as a dodo”.
A Conservative Home poll found 67% of card-carrying Tories did not support the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan and 69% said it would deliver a bad deal for Britain.
Eloise Todd, chief of Remain supporting group Best for Britain, said the members had delivered “a pretty strong message”. She said: “They are telling her that her Chequers plan is as dead as a dodo.”
No10 said Mrs May will use a crunch European Union meeting later this month to make the case for the plan to fellow leaders.
It has been attacked by Tory Brexiteers, Tory Remainers, and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
Mrs May’s spokesman insisted that approval was a matter for EU leaders, whom she will meet “for further engagement” at an informal session of the European Council in Salzburg, Austria, on September 20.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab was laughed at in the Commons yesterday when he told MPs that Britain would be “ready for Brexit, deal or no deal” but added that there would be “some risks from a no-deal scenario”.
Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer called the Chequers plan a “fudge” and said the Government was in a “real fix” over how to leave the EU.
■ The huge GMB trade union yesterday called for a second referendum on Brexit, saying promises made during the 2016 vote are “not the reality we are facing”.