We must hold our nerve, says May
THERESA MAY yesterday attempted to quell a mounting Tory rebellion over Brexit by unveiling a new four-point plan designed to break the deadlock with Brussels.
The Prime Minister was accused by Eurosceptic Tory MPS of “surrender” as they suggested in the Commons that she did not have a Brexit plan and did not “know where we’re going”.
Conservative MPS said that they and their constituents were becoming increasingly “frustrated” as Mrs May insisted the UK would have fully left the EU by the next election in May 2022
‘Serving our national interest will demand that we hold our nerve through these last stages of negotiations’
– six years after the Brexit vote. Mrs May was today due to discuss Brexit negotiations with her Cabinet, with ministers expected to warn that there must be a time limit on any customs backstop amid concerns it could leave Britain tied to the EU indefinitely.
In a reprieve for the Prime Minister, Eurosceptic Tory MPS abandoned a Commons bid to make the EU’S plans for a Northern Irish backstop illegal. Around 40 Tory MPS and the DUP had been expected to back the amendment.
Mrs May yesterday told the Commons that the EU had made a “substantial shift” and was now “actively working” on her plans for a backstop that would see the whole of the UK remain tied to the EU.
She said: “Serving our national interest will demand that we hold our nerve through these last stages of the negotiations, the hardest part of all. It will mean not giving in to those who
want to stop Brexit with a politicians vote – politicians telling the people they got it wrong the first time and should try again. And it will mean focusing on the prize that lies before us: the great opportunities that we can open up for our country when we clear these final hurdles in the negotiations.”
The Prime Minister insisted that the Irish border issue was the only “considerable sticking point” left to resolve.
She outlined four steps needed before an agreement could be reached.
The first would be to make her plans for a joint customs territory between the UK and the EU “legally binding”, avoiding the need for a Northern Ireland-only customs backstop. The second step would be to ensure there was an option to extend the two-year transition period, a move that prompted a Cabinet backlash. She insisted it would only be for a “short time”.
The third step was to ensure that the extended transition or backstop was not extended “indefinitely”, while the fourth step would be continued UK access for Northern Ireland’s businesses.
John Whittingdale, a Eurosceptic Tory MP, said his constituents were frustrated that Britain would not have control of its laws, borders and money until 2021 at the earliest. “Does she understand that for many of us that is already too long?,” he asked.
Jacob Rees-mogg, a leading Eurosceptic Tory MP, asked: “Does the Prime Minister know where we’re going?” It came after John Redwood, a former Cabinet minister, earlier branded plans to extend the transition period as “surrender” and said additional Budget contributions would be better spent on domestic priorities.
Mrs May insisted that without a backstop, there would be no withdrawal agreement. “Without the withdrawal agreement, there will be no future relationship,” she said.
She made clear that her plan would mean that the EU’S backstop, that would keep only Northern Ireland in a customs union, was “no longer needed”.
Last night, Boris Johnson joined Stand Up for Brexit, a group campaigning against the customs backstop and the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan.