Radio show’s callers savage PM over deal

Prime Minister Theresa May was given a hard time by callers over her Brexit deal on a radio phone-in.

On LBC’s Nick Ferrari Show, Mrs May was told to quit, make way for Jacob Rees-Mogg and even compared to former premier Neville Chamberlain, notorious for his policy of appeasing Hitler.

Caller John, from Gillingham, labelled Mrs May a “modern-day Chamberlain”, the prime minister who famously claimed to have secured “peace for our time” in negotiations with Hitler.

He told Mrs May: “I would like you to stand up for our country and stand up for what’s best for our country. Appeasing a foreign power and locking us in forever is not doing that.”

Mrs May denied the UK would be “locked in forever to something we don’t want”.

Tory-supporting councillor Dan, from Louth, called on Mrs May to stand down, saying he “commended” the PM for trying to strike a Brexit deal with the EU, but “sadly that has not worked”.

He asked her: “Please prime minister, tell me why do you think you should stay on as PM when you have failed to (deliver on) the referendum result?”

Mrs May responded by going through details of the draft withdrawal agreement.

She said: “You’re absolutely right that for a lot of people who voted Leave, what they wanted to do was make sure that decisions on things like who can come into this country would be taken by us here in the UK, and not by Brussels, and that’s exactly what the deal I’ve negotiated delivers.”

LBC phone-in caller Gary, from Acton in west London, said it appeared the EU had “got the better deal” in negotiations, and asked Mrs May: “Don’t you think Jacob Rees-Mogg is the person to lead us at the moment?”

She replied: “A lot of people look at this and think the only side that’s given anything is the UK. Actually that’s not the case.”

Mrs May said the EU had initially wanted the European Court of Justice to have jurisdiction in a wide range of areas of UK life following Brexit.

“We are very clear that cannot be the case, and that’s what we’ve negotiated,” she said.

Michael, from Derry in Northern Ireland, asked: “Can the prime minister give any reassurance that the bespoke deal won’t be scuppered by her ‘confidence and supply’ partners, the DUP?”

Mrs May said there were complications over the border but said she believed she had got the best deal possible and hoped MPs acted in the national interest.