PM to tell world leaders her Brexit deal is good for the global economy
PM defiant as she is quizzed by senior MPs
THERESA MAY is to tell world leaders that the Brexit deal she has reached with the EU will be good for the global economy as she uses a international gathering to push her “global Britain” message.
The Prime Minister is joining leaders including US President Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping and Japan’s Shinzo Abe at the annual summit of the G20 group of leading economies in Argentina.
Mrs May becomes the first serving UK Prime Minister to visit Argentine capital Buenos Aires, and only the second to travel to the country, following a Tony Blair trip over the border from Brazil in 2001.
The two-day G20 gathering marks a brief respite for Mrs May from bitter wrangling in Westminster over the Brexit plan she agreed with EU leaders in Brussels on Sunday.
European Council president Donald Tusk and Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker will be in Buenos Aires, along with France’s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but the EU side has made clear there will be no more negotiation on the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement.
Mrs May, who was yesterday quizzed by senior MPs, will take the opportunity to voice Britain’s determination to “play a full and active role on trade on the global stage” following Brexit.
THERESA MAY has pushed back against calls for a second Brexit referendum, warning it would mean unpicking the deal agreed with Brussels.
Appearing before senior MPs, the Prime Minister refused to be drawn on what would happen if the Commons votes down the Withdrawal Agreement in the crunch vote on December 11.
However, she insisted a socalled “people’s vote” was not an option as it could not be held before March 29, 2019 when Britain leaves the EU.
The Prime Minister told the Commons Liaison Committee that seeking an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process – to enable a referendum to be held – would mean the agreement would fall and they would have to go back to the negotiating table.
“Any second referendum that would be held, if that were the case, would not be able to be held by March 29 next year. You would have to extend Article 50,” she said.
“To extend Article 50, actually you are then in the business of renegotiating the deal.
“What is clear is that any extension to Article 50 – anything like that – reopens the negotiations, reopens the deal. At that point, frankly, the deal can go in any direction.
“We would simply find ourselves in a period of more uncertainty, more division in this country.”
Her warning came amid intense speculation that the Government is heading for defeat in the vote on December 11, with scores of Tory MPs declaring publicly that they intend to oppose the deal.
With Labour and the other opposition parties also opposed to the agreement, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has suggested a second referendum could be “inevitable” unless Mrs May goes back to the country in a General Election.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that there was a series of “practical steps” which would have to follow if the Government lost the vote but refused to be drawn further.
“My focus is on the vote that will take place on December 11 here in this House,” she said.
“You want to look at all sorts of options and ideas. I think it is important Members of Parliament focus on the nature of this vote.
“This is an important point in our history. It is a vote on which we will be deciding whether we deliver on the decision of the British people.
“What has been made clear from the European Union is that this is the deal that has been negotiated and this is the deal that people need to focus on when they are looking at the vote.”
In Brussels, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the time for negotiations was over and that the British Parliament needed to decide whether to ratify the agreement.
“Given the difficult circumstances of this negotiation, and given the extreme complexity of all the subjects related to the UK’s withdrawal, the deal that is on the table ... this deal is the only and the best deal possible,” he said in an address to the European Parliament.
Meanwhile Tory former Education Secretary Justine Greening has insisted that a new Brexit referendum could be held by the end of May.
Rotherham-born Ms Greening said that if Mrs May’s Brexit deal is voted down by the Commons, organising a new referendum could begin immediately.
Speaking at an event in London, she said: “I’ve worked out that you could plan and hold a referendum in 22 weeks.
“We could actually, after this vote on December 11, hold a referendum, potentially, on May 30 next year.
“We could, alongside that, choose to extend Article 50, I’ve suggested, by four months to July 29.”