MAY TRIES TO SELL BREXIT DEAL
Opponents say the deal threatens her government and the unity of the UK
PRIME Minister Theresa May was set to try to convince senior ministers yesterday to accept a draft European Union divorce deal that opponents say threatens her government and the unity of the United Kingdom.
The weakest British leader in a generation, she has to try to get the deal approved by Parliament before exiting the bloc on March 29.
Brexit campaigners in May’s Conservative Party accused her of surrendering to the EU, and said they would vote down the deal. The Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up May’s minority government, questioned whether she would be able to get parliamentary approval.
“It’s a question of whether we are separating the union, whether we are dealing with the United Kingdom in a way that leaves us adrift in the future and, as the leader of unionism in Northern Ireland, I’m not about to agree to that,” DUP leader Arlene Foster told Sky News.
Five of May’s senior ministers — Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove and Geoffrey Cox — will back the deal, said the Sun newspaper’s political editor, Tom Newton Dunn.
EU leaders could meet on Nov 25 for a summit to seal the Brexit deal if May’s cabinet approves the text, diplomatic sources said.
For the EU, reeling from successive crises over debt and immigration, the loss of Britain is the biggest blow yet to 60 years of efforts to forge European unity in the wake of two world wars.
The ultimate outcome for the UK remains uncertain: scenarios range from a calm divorce to rejection of May’s deal and potentially sinking her premiership and leaving the bloc with no agreement, or another referendum.
May, an initial opponent of Brexit who won the top job in the turmoil following the 2016 referendum, has staked her future on a deal she hopes will solve the Brexit riddle: leaving the EU, while preserving the closest possible ties.
Far from garnering broad support, May’s plans so far have upset Brexit campaigners, EU supporters, Scottish nationalists, DUP and some of her ministers.
The government gave no immediate details on the Brexit deal text, which runs to hundreds of pages.