INSIDE: MAY FAILS TO SILENCE ‘CHUCK CHEQUERS’ CALLS
n Brexiteers praise PM for ‘standing up to EU bullies’ n MPs from across parties call for major rethink
THERESA MAY won admiration from Conservative Brexiteers for “standing up to EU bullies” yesterday but demands for her to ditch her Chequers plan remained clear across the political divide.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the Tory Brexiteer European Research Group praised the Prime Minister’s “strong and forthright” tone but told her she must change tack.
The North Somerset MP called on Mrs May to go further than her Downing Street speech and tell the EU they can either offer a looser Canada-style free trade agreement in return for the UK’s £38bn “divorce bill”, or walk away from the negotiating table and default into World Trade Organisation rules.
Mr Rees-Mogg said the PM’s humiliation in Salzburg showed the EU was “not acting in good faith”, claiming Brussels was briefed on the terms of Chequers and gave it the green light before Mrs May pushed it through her Cabinet and sparked the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis in July.
“This makes the Prime Minister’s task harder and she is right to remind them that no deal is better than a bad deal,” he said.
Rotherham-born former Cabinet Minister Justine Greening said Mrs May’s approach to Brexit was “neither fair, nor sensible”.
Appearing on BBC News, after Mrs May’s speech, the pro-EU MP said: “I just think for any Government on an issue so important to our future as Brexit, a strategy of just guessing what the British public want and then hoping that it will work out okay from my perspective is simply neither fair nor sensible politically.
“That’s why I think it would be wise for her to start listening to MPs in her own party and indeed people in the country. The latest opinion poll showed just 14 per cent of people supporting Chequers. That is not carrying out the will of the British people.”
Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the PM remained “in denial” and had left the country “staring down the barrel of no deal”, adding: “I think the levels of anxiety are going up around the country day after day and the Prime Minister I think is appearing to be in denial,” he said.
“I don’t understand why she’s failed to hear the message that the Chequers proposal wasn’t going to be accepted by the EU and frankly it’s not going to be accepted by her own party.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn added: “From day one, the Prime Minister has looked incapable of delivering a good Brexit deal for Britain.
“The political games from both the EU and our Government need to end because no deal is not an option.”
Mrs May’s commitment to maintaining a soft Irish border won praise from the Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her minority Government in Westminster in a confidence and supply deal.
But business groups warned both sides to rein in their tone and negotiate to avoid no deal.
Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general, said: “The events of the last 24 hours have made one thing abundantly clear – negotiators on both sides must change tack. Rejection of Chequers helps nobody.
“The stakes could not be higher. Jobs, wages and living standards are at risk, on both sides of the Channel.
“Pragmatism must come before politics.”