PM May tells disloyal MPs: History will judge you...

THERESA MAY has warned Tory MPs that “history will judge them” if they fail to deliver Brexit for Britain.

In a strongly worded letter the Prime Minister appealed for unity and urged colleagues to be willing to compromise for the good of the country.

But in a clear rebuke to Remainers she urged Tory MPs to have confidence in the UK’s “innate strengths, enviable resources, and enormous talent”.

The letter follows another defeat over Brexit for the Government last week but comes as French president Emmanuel Macron has signalled a major U-turn with a willingness to time-limit the controversial Northern Ireland backstop.

The letter also comes amid concerns that the Government could only be seeking cosmetic changes to the backstop.

Yesterday Mrs May called other EU leaders to try to ensure a compromise on the backstop.

She is due to hold crucial talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker this week.

In her “dear colleague” letter, the Prime Minister urged the party to “move beyond what divides us” and sacrifice “personal preferences” to unite in the “higher service of the national interest” and deliver a good deal that “restores faith” in British politics.

She added: “In leading the party over the last two and a half years, I have sought to steer a course that can unite all pragmatic points of view behind a clear and coherent policy: to honour the result of a referendum which we as Conservatives were united in putting to the British people, and to do so by leaving the EU with a negotiated deal that protects our close economic relationship, maintains our security co-operation and meets the needs of all parts of the United Kingdom.”

She warned: “History will judge us all for the parts we have played in this process. I believe that a country with our innate strengths, enviable resources, and enormous talent can face the future with confidence that our best days lie ahead.

“But we stand now at a crucial moment. I do not underestimate how deeply or how sincerely colleagues hold the views which they do on this important issue – or that we are all motivated by a common desire to do what is best for our country, even if we disagree on the means of doing so.

“But I believe that a failure to make the compromises necessary to reach and take through Parliament a Withdrawal Agreement which delivers on the result of the referendum will let down the people who sent us to represent them and risk the bright future that they all deserve.”

Tomorrow, Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay will meet EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to talk through the proposals of the Alternative Arrangements Working Group.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will make a speech setting out what changes would be required to eliminate the legal risk of being trapped indefinitely in the backstop.

However, the Sunday Express has been shown a message from a WhatsApp group for pro-second referendum activists including MPs which claimed Mr

Barclay and defacto deputy prime minister David Liddington were only seeking cosmetic changes to the backstop in meetings last week.

According to Remainer MPs who held discussions with senior MEPs following their talks with Mr Barclay and Mr Liddington the Government is seeking only a change that “gives the appearance of a time limit but in reality does not time limit the backstop”.

A Downing Street source dismissed the comments as “a conspiracy theory” and insisted that the Attorney General will have to give a legal opinion on any changes.

But Brexiteer Tory MP Peter Bone, founder of Grassroots Out, warned: “The Prime Minister lost by unprecedented historic proportions when she first brought her deal to Parliament.

“If she wants to avoid a similar defeat then she needs to either remove or time limit the backstop.”

Meanwhile, anger over Government Brexit policy has led to concerns from some MPs that Tory members are abandoning the party to join Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party.

According to sources close to Mr Farage around 70,000 people have already expressed interest in joining the party.

Last night an Opinium poll revealed that 48 per cent of voters polled believe Mrs May’s deal is bad, an increase of three per cent. Almost a quarter believe their MPs should vote down the deal compared to one in five a fortnight ago.

‘A country with our strengths can face the future with confidence’