NOW LET'S GET ON WITH IT!

She’s wrestled with mutinous MPs and slippery eurocrats. As Mrs May finally hammers out a deal with Brussels to give us Brexit, she demands...

THERESA May appealed over the heads of her rebellious MPs yesterday as she urged business and the public to back her Brexit deal.

In a public appeal on the steps of Downing Street, the Prime Minister said a deal was ‘within our grasp’ after agreeing plans that will end free movement and avoid a hard exit from the EU.

In an upbeat assessment, Mrs May said a 26page agreement with Brussels would set the UK ‘on course for a brighter future’, adding: ‘The British people want Brexit to be settled.’

She said the plan was ‘the right deal for the UK’ – ending free movement and allowing the country to sign trade deals around the world, while retaining good trade links with the European Union.

The deal still has to be passed by EU leaders, who will gather in Brussels on Sunday to consider it. And Mrs May faces an uphill battle to sell it to her own party, with 88 Tory MPs – about half of her backbench – publicly committed to rejecting it when it comes before Parliament next month. Key details of the deal include: An end to free movement, with new EU

migrants likely to need visas to live and work in the UK; existing migrants would not be affected and tourists would be free to travel visa-free;

Tariff-free trade with the EU, with a commitment to create a comprehensive ‘free trade area’ with minimal customs checks;

A possible extension of the transition period until the end of 2022, more than six years after the referendum; during this time free movement will continue, EU laws will apply and the UK will have to make contributions to the EU budget;

Technological solutions could be used instead of the ‘backstop’ to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, provided they can be developed in time;

Acceptance from the EU that Britain will be free to develop an ‘independent trade policy’, potentially opening the door to a string of new trade deals.

But in a co-ordinated push led by Boris Johnson, a string of Tory MPs warned Mrs May they would join forces with Labour to vote down the deal unless she scraps the controversial Irish ‘backstop’, which could keep the UK locked in a customs union for years.

The former Foreign Secretary, who hopes to succeed her as Prime Minister, said the backstop plan – which the EU has said must be included in any deal – ‘makes a nonsense of Brexit’. Mrs May told her leadership rival that the deal ‘ends free movement, ends sending vast sums of money to the European Union every year and ends the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the United Kingdom, and it enables us to hold an independent trade policy and to negotiate trade deals around the whole of the world’.

She also angrily denied claims that the agreement paved the way for Britain’s fishing industry to be ‘sacrificed’.

And she rejected repeated calls for a second referendum, which she said would be a betrayal of the 2016 result. No 10 later said a second referendum would never be held while Mrs May was Prime Minister.

Chief whip Julian Smith has warned Mrs May that she faces a battle to get her deal through Parliament when it comes before MPs on or around December 11.

But No10 has already launched a massive PR offensive and plans to sell the deal to business and the public with a string of speeches around the country. Allies hope public pressure, and the fear of no deal at all, will force many MPs to back down.

Mrs May said: ‘The negotiations [on the political declaration] are now at a critical moment... the British people want Brexit to be settled, they want a good deal that sets us on a course for a brighter future, and they want us to come together as a country and to move on to focus on the big issues at home, like our NHS.

‘The deal that will enable us to do this is now within our grasp. In these crucial 72 hours ahead, I will do everything possible to deliver it for the British people.’

The joint ‘political declaration’ with the EU sets out a broad framework for future relations. Unlike the withdrawal agreement and the £39billion divorce payment, it is not legally binding. Downing Street insisted both sides were committed to making it work. The document makes no mention of Mrs May’s ambition for ‘frictionless’ trade, and appears to have killed off elements of her Chequers proposals.

Instead, it sets out a broad ‘spectrum of different outcomes’ for customs and trade rules. The UK would sign up to a ‘level playing field’, pledging to match EU regulations on everything from workers’ rights and environmental standards to state aid and competition rules. The level of British access to the single market will depend on the degree to which the UK agrees to shadow the EU’s approach.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described the plan as a ‘blindfold Brexit’, with MPs being asked to vote it through without knowing what sort of economic partnership would result.

When Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described it as ‘26 pages of waffle’, Mrs May rounded on him, saying: ‘He may want to play party politics, I am working in the national interest.’ But she also faced a wave of criticism from Eurosceptics on her own benches.

Dominic Raab, who resigned as Brexit Secretary last week, said the backstop would leave the UK tied to the EU with no say over its rules. DUP chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson also called on the Prime Minister to dump the backstop.

Mrs May insisted the backstop was not ‘automatic’, saying a comprehensive trade deal, an extended transition and technological solutions to the Irish border problem were all possible alternatives.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged Eurosceptic MPs to ‘take your time to understand the agreement – what it is but also what it isn’t’, adding: ‘Secondly, think about what the alternative would be to not having this deal.’ In an interview with the House magazine, Mr Javid said: ‘There is a risk that if we don’t have this deal there could be no Brexit at all, because there are some in Parliament who are calling for a second referendum. I’m completely against a second referendum. I also don’t want to see a chaotic no-deal.’

Majestic Wine is preparing to stockpile up to 1.5million bottles to avoid disruption if there is a no-deal Brexit. The firm said it will spend up to £8 million on wine from the EU – mostly from France, its biggest producer.

But chief executive Rowan Gormley tried to downplay fears of a chaotic Brexit, saying most consumers would opt for wines from the likes of New Zealand and Australia if they struggled to get their hands on European vintages.

‘The deal is now within our grasp’