Help save our deal, May urges leaders

THERESA MAY has appealed to EU leaders to give her the assurances she needs to get the backing of MPs for her Brexit deal.

At the EU summit in Brussels, she insisted she could construct a Commons majority for the controversial Withdrawal Agreement, despite heavy criticism from all sides of the House.

However, in a meeting with the leaders of the remaining 27, she said she had to be able to convince MPs the UK would not find itself tied to the EU indefinitely through the Northern Ireland “backstop”.

“There is a majority in my Parliament who want to leave with a deal so with the right assurances this deal can be passed,” she said in prepared remarks released by No 10.

“Indeed it is the only deal capable of getting through my Parliament.”

The Prime Minister, who on Wednesday survived a bruising vote of no confidence by Tory MPs, said a package of assurances around the backstop could “change the dynamic” at Westminster.

At the same time, she made clear a failure by EU leaders to offer concessions risked the collapse of the whole agreement with the UK leaving in March in a disorderly, nodeal Brexit.

“We have to change the perception that the backstop could be a trap from which the UK could not escape. Until we do, the deal – our deal – is at risk,” she said.

“I am in no doubt that the best result for all of us is to get this deal delivered in an orderly way and to get it done now.

“It is in none of our interests to run the risk of accidental no-deal with all the disruption that would bring, or to allow this to drag on any further.”

She ended with a highly personal appeal to EU leaders to put their trust in her to deliver on her promises and to give her the political room for manoeuvre she needs.

“Over the last few years I hope I have shown you can trust me to do what is right, not always what is easy, however difficult that might be for me politically,” she said.

“We must get this right and hold nothing in reserve. Let’s work together intensively to get this deal over the line in the best interests of all our people.”

Meanwhile, a new play about Brexit, which will be updated every night to reflect changes in the political landscape, will premiere in London next year.

The Last Temptation Of Boris Johnson by Jonathan Maitland will depict a dinner party when the former foreign secretary decided to vote Leave and then fast forward to a post-Brexit Britain in 2029 when Johnson is portrayed in the political wilderness.

The playwright, who has also penned An Audience With Jimmy Savile and Dead Sheep, said: “Writing a play about Boris during these tumultuous times is wonderfully challenging – it’s given me more sleepless nights than anything in my career – and that includes writing a play about Jimmy Savile, which one national newspaper tried to have banned.”