Theresa May comes out fighting in face I’ll deliver deal, says PM on day of high drama
Brexit turmoil
THE draft plan will go before an EU summit on November 25 for agreement.
The House of Commons will vote on the agreement in December.
If it is approved by MPs then a withdrawal Bill will be presented early next year,
The EU Parliament and EU Council needs to approve it and the UK then leaves the EU on March 29 2019.
If it is rejected the Government has 21 days to come up with an alternative plan.
That could lead to a re-negotiated deal or the UK leaving with no deal.
There could also be a general election or even another referendum on leaving the EU. THERESA May has sent a defiant message to her opponents that she is staying to deliver a Brexit deal.
After a dramatic day of resignations and letters of no confidence being sent to the Tory 1922 Committee, the Prime Minister came out fighting.
Mrs May lost two of her Cabinet and another junior minister less than a day after the Cabinet backed the draft Brexit agreement in Downing Street.
With the pro Brexit wing of the Tories poised to challenge her position Mrs May said she believed “with every fibre of her being” that what she was doing was right.
She added: “Am I going to see it through? Yes”.
The Prime Minister took a swipe at those who had resigned saying she was acting in the best interests of the country.
She said: “My approach throughout has been to put the national interest first. Not a partisan interest. And certainly not my own political interest.”
However, she added: “I do not judge harshly those of my colleagues who seek to do the same but who reach a different conclusion. They must do what they believe to be right, just as I do.
“I am sorry that they have chosen to leave the government and I thank them for their service.
“But I believe with every fibre of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people.”
Mrs May said not to back the deal would lead to “deep and grave uncertainty”.
She said: “I understand fully that there are some who are unhappy with those compromises.
“But this deal delivers what people voted for and it is in the national interest.
“And we can only secure it if we unite behind the agreement reached in Cabinet yesterday.
“If we do not move forward with that agreement, nobody can know for sure the consequences that will follow.”
She spoke following two more high profile resignations plunged the Tories into chaos.
First, Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, who negotiated the draft agreement, resigned, then Work and Pension Secretary, Esther McVey, quit her post.
Both said the deal put the integrity of the United