May focuses on future trade links at G20 summit
May’s Brexit claim on G20 visit to Argentina
PRIME MINISTER Theresa May will hold face-to-face bilateral talks with a series of world leaders at the G20 summit in Argentina today.
Meetings with Australian PM Scott Morrison, Japan’s Shinzo Abe, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau will focus on opportunities for trade after Brexit.
In a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mrs May will also discuss the progress of Turkey’s investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
Mrs May has promised to make a “robust” case for the need for a transparent and credible investigation into Mr Khashoggi’s death when she met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday.
Officials said she urged the Prince to ensure Saudi Arabia provides full co-operation to the Turkish investigation.
Trade is not a focus for the meeting with Mohammed, said a senior UK official. The official said: “It’s important that we engage and are able to deliver these messages in person.”
THERESA MAY has accused Labour of planning a “betrayal of the British people” by voting down her Brexit deal and pushing the country towards a no-deal departure from the EU.
With less than a fortnight to go to the historic Commons vote on her plan, the Prime Minister urged all MPs – including 100 or more Tories who have said they may rebel – to cast their vote “in the national interest” and back a deal which she said would deliver Brexit while protecting jobs.
In a round of broadcast interviews in Argentina, where she is attending the G20 summit, Mrs May declined to discuss whether she might offer a Plan B if her deal is voted down on December 11, or whether defeat could mean her resigning or being forced out.
“It’s not about me,” said Mrs May. “This is about what is in the national interest.
“It’s about delivering the vote to leave the EU and doing it in a way that protects people’s jobs and livelihoods and protects our security and our United Kingdom.”
Mrs May is the first Conservative Prime Minister to visit Argentina since the 1982 war, and only the second serving PM to do so, after Tony Blair briefly crossed the border from Brazil in 2001.
Arriving in Argentina on Thursday night, she vowed to maintain Britain’s defence of the sovereignty of the islands known to Argentina as Las Malvinas.
Speaking at the G20 in Buenos Aires, European Council president Donald Tusk warned that Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement is “the only possible one” and voting it down will either lead to a no-deal Brexit or no Brexit at all. He told reporters: “The European Union has just agreed an orderly divorce with the United Kingdom.
“A few days before the vote in the House of Commons it is becoming more and more clear that this deal is the best possible – in fact the only possible one.
“If this deal is rejected in the Commons we are left with, as was already stressed a few weeks ago by Prime Minister May, an alternative: no deal or no Brexit at all.”
Mrs May said she was ready to use the G20 summit to correct suggestions by US president Donald Trump – who is also in Buenos Aires – that her deal would leave the UK unable to forge a trade agreement with America.
“I’m very happy to tell President Trump and others that we will have an independent trade policy, because we will have an independent trade policy, we will be able to do trade deals,” she said.”
Asked whether she was putting pressure on Tory MPs to fall in behind her plan, Mrs May said: “Obviously we’re talking to colleagues about this vote.
“I think we should remember that we gave the vote to the British people as to whether or not to leave the EU. People voted for Brexit and I think it’s up to us to deliver Brexit.
“The message I get from members of the public is that they want the Government to do that, they want us to deliver Brexit and we want to do it in a way that protects people’s jobs..”
Turning her fire on Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, who she has offered to debate with on TV ahead of the crunch Commons vote, Mrs May said: “I’ve got a plan, I’ve got a proposal, I’ve got the deal that I’ve negotiated.
“We don’t see any alternative coming forward from the Labour Party. I think people need to be aware of that.
“Instead, what I see from Labour is an attempt to frustrate what the Government is doing to deliver Brexit for the British people. That is actually a betrayal of the British people.”
Mrs May’s comments came as International Trade Secretary Liam Fox insisted that a no-deal Brexit would not be a disaster. Dr Fox appeared to suggest that some of his Cabinet colleagues may still vote against the PM’s Brexit deal.