May insists Brexit deal cannot improve as EU prepares sign-off
PM takes to airwaves to insist deal is ‘right for UK’
THERESA MAY yesterday insisted she cannot improve the embattled Brexit deal expected to be sealed at a special EU summit in Brussels tomorrow.
The Prime Minister heads to the Belgian capital this afternoon for final talks with European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker to bring to an end nearly two years of Brexit negotiations on the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.
The resulting withdrawal agreement and political declaration on future EU-UK relations, on which formal talks will begin after exit day on March 29, is expected to be rubber-stamped by member states at a short special European Council summit on Sunday.
Mrs May is expected to hold a press conference in which she will again make the case for a deal which has attracted widespread opposition in the Commons, and currently looks like being voted down by MPs.
Yesterday, she insisted she would not be able to wrangle fresh concessions if Parliament rejects the deal.
In a BBC phone-in as part of her drive to sell the agreement to the public, the PM said: “If we were to go back to the European Union and say ‘People didn’t like that deal can we have another one?,’ I don’t think they are going to come to us and say ‘We will give you a better deal’. This is the deal that I think works for the UK.”
Mrs May could also face a minor battle to reach a final agreement as Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez demanded last-minute changes to the deal to reflect his country’s continuing concerns over the status of Gibraltar.
Spain later claimed British authorities had consented to Spanish demands granting Madrid prior approval on matters relating to The Rock.
But a Downing Street source said: “I don’t know what he is referring to. Our principles have been very clear, we have negotiated on behalf of the whole of the UK family – that includes Gibraltar and the overseas territories.”
Spain is expected to eventually back down in the row, which critics have said is being confected for a domestic audience.
THERESA MAY yesterday refused to say whether she would resign if her Brexit deal is voted down by MPs next month.
The Prime Minister was answering questions from members of the public in a radio phone-in as part of her intensifying efforts to win backing for her deal.
The scale of the challenge she faces was underlined yesterday when former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, a committed Leaver who quit over the agreement, who said he believed the terms were so bad the UK would be better off remaining in the EU.
With more than 80 Conservative MPs – from both the Leave and Remain sides – threatening to vote against the deal, Mrs May was asked whether she would resign if she lost the Commons vote on her plan.
On the BBC phone-in, she insisted: “I’m focused on actually ensuring we do get this deal through Parliament, because I believe this is absolutely the right deal for the UK.
“This isn’t about me. As I’m sitting here, I’m not thinking about me, I’m thinking about getting a deal through that delivers for the people of this country.
“That’s what drives me and that’s what is at the forefront of my mind.”
Mr Raab warned the plan was unlikely to get through the Commons and said Ministers should consider leaving without a deal.
“I’m not going to advocate staying in the EU,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“But if you just presented me terms, this deal or EU membership, because we would effectively be bound by the same rules but without the control or voice over them, yes, I think this would be even worse than that.”
He added: “I think some of those other alternatives will need to come into play,” he said.
Mrs May, however, warned rejection of her plan would lead to more “uncertainty and division” and that the public now wanted the Government and MPs to get on and deliver Brexit.
“In Parliament there’s a lot of focus on who’s going to vote for the deal or not, and outside I think people are thinking ‘Actually, let’s make sure we can get this through and get on with delivering’,” she said.
“If this deal doesn’t go through we are back at square one. What we end up with is more uncertainty and more division.”
Despite the turmoil, the Prime Minister again insisted that as far as she was concerned, Brexit would go ahead next year as planned.
“Personally, there is no question of no Brexit, because the Government needs to deliver on what people voted for in the referendum in 2016,” she said.
“As far as I am concerned, the UK is leaving the European Union on March 29, 2019.”
Mrs May was also put on the spot by a caller who demanded to know “without any political waffle or a convoluted answer” whether she believed her Brexit deal would be better for the UK than remaining a member of the EU.
Her assurance of a “bright future” ahead failed to satisfy the caller – named as Michael – and she was forced to answer again.
This time, she came as close as she ever has to saying she personally believes Brexit is better than continued EU membership, saying: “I think we will be better off in a situation which we will have outside the European Union.”
It was a rare awkward moment for the PM in a half-hour broadcast hosted by Emma Barnett, in which several callers were notably supportive of her and some seemed concerned for her wellbeing.
It was a far cry from the PM’s ordeal on LBC radio last week, when listeners told her she was “appeasing” the EU like Neville Chamberlain did with Hitler, that her negotiations had failed and she should be replaced by Jacob Rees-Mogg.