May defends backstop plans in defiance of calls to renegotiate
Theresa May put herself on course for a fresh collision with her Cabinet and Scottish Conservative MPS over her draft Brexit deal, defending proposals for an Irish border backstop that the UK will not be able to leave without EU permission.
The Prime Minister suggested the insurance policy to keep the status quo on the border would remain unchanged, despite Brexiteers in Cabinet pushing for a unilateral exit mechanism.
Mrs May will close negotiations with the EU, meeting commission president Jeanclaude Juncker for “critical” talks in Brussels this week before a summit to sign the deal on Sunday.
However, she said the focus of those talks would be the political declaration outlining the future relationship, not the withdrawal agreement that includes the backstop.
“The focus this week will be on the future relationship and when we were in the House of Commons a number of members were saying we want more details on that future relationship – that’s what we are working on this week,” Mrs May said on Sky’s Ridge on Sunday programme.
“It’s the future relationship that delivers on the Brexit vote. It’s the future relationship that actually says this is the right deal for the future for our country.”
She defended the backstop,
which will keep the whole of the UK in EU customs rules if London and Brussels fail to agree a comprehensive trade deal during the post-brexit transition phase which ends in December 2020.
The backstop would also see additional regulatory checks on goods travelling between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland.
Mrs May said: “If you took out an insurance policy… and that insurance policy was being used, but suddenly the people providing that insurance policy pulled the plug on it for you, and you were left without that insurance policy without having any say in it, what would you think?”
The comments risk a new rift between the Prime Minister and the so-called “Gang of Five” that includes Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom. During a spate of Cabinet resignations over the draft deal last week, the group decided to remain in post, working behind the scenes to force the Prime Minister into seeking new concessions from the EU. Brussels has insisted the withdrawal agreement is not open for renegotiation.
Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary who fuelled the crisis by resigning last week, said he had been speaking “intensively” to Ms Leadsom and ministers looking to change her deal.
He said: “I can’t say I have had extensive conversations. But I am willing to talk and be as constructive as I can… I want [the Prime Minister] to get this right.”
Responding to Mrs May’s interview, a source in the European Research Group, which is pushing for a vote of no confidence in her leadership, compared the deal to the Titanic disaster: “We have negotiated in good faith with the iceberg and cannot break our commitments to it.”
Several Scottish Conservative MPS, who are unhappy with both the backstop and suggestions that the EU could retain their current access to UK fishing waters as part of the future partnership, have also withheld their support for the draft deal.
John Lamont, the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP, said he had “a number of concerns. I’m going to look at the detail closely before coming to a final decision about how I will vote in the deal when it comes to the House of Commons.”
Angus MP Kirstene Hair said she needed further assurances from the Government about the backstop and fishing rights.
Brexit plotters yet to amass enough support to oust Prime Minister
Brexiteers have yet to amass the 48 letters of no confidence from Conservative MPS needed to trigger the process to oust Theresa May as Conservative Party leader, the Prime Minister has said.
Theresa May told Sky’s Ridge On Sunday that the threshold for letters of no confidence needed to start a leadership battle had yet to be reached, and she was backed up by the man who oversees the process, 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady.
In a message to those plotting her downfall, including members of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic MPS, Mrs May said she
Paris Gourtsoyannis
had not considered quitting. With MPS led by Jacob Rees-mogg calling for a vote of no confidence, Mrs May warned plotters they risked opening the door to a no-deal scenario or a fresh EU referendum that cancels Brexit.
“A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier and it isn’t going to change the parliamentary arithmetic,” she said.
“What it will do is bring in a degree of uncertainty. That is uncertainty for people and their jobs.
“What it will do is mean that it is a risk that we delay the negotiations and that is a risk that Brexit gets delayed or frustrated.”
Asked if she had considered
stepping down, Mrs May said: “No, I haven’t.
“Of course it has been a tough week. Actually these negotiations have been tough right from the start, but they were always going to get even more difficult right toward the end.”
Mr Brady said that if the 48-letter threshold was reached, he would “inform and consult the leader of the party” and “organise a ballot as soon as is reasonably practical”.
He told the BBC’S Pienaar’s Politics programme that not even his wife knows how many letters he had received. “Victoria does not know, nor do the two vice chairman of the 1922 Committee or the other officers,” he said.
The backbencher also revealed he was not totally happy with Mrs May’s withdrawal agreement.
Asked about the deal’s lack of a unilateral exit route from the backstop, Mr Brady said: “I’m not happy about it... There might be some tweaks to that and I hope there will be.”
Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary whose resignation last week fuelled the current crisis, said he was opposed to any attempt to oust the Prime Minister.
“It’s a total distraction from what we need to do... I think there is still the opportunity to get this right, support the Prime Minister – but she must also listen and change course on Brexit.”