Unify on EU exit, May urges Tories
Britain entering crunch time ahead of summit, premier tells party gathering
BIRMINGHAM, England — British Prime Minister Theresa May battled to unite her Conservative Party on Wednesday, telling critics to abandon their dreams of a “perfect” departure from the European Union and “come together” as divorce negotiations enter their tough final phase.
May took on her detractors in a punchy address to the party’s annual conference, a day after a rival, former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, challenged her authority with a speech of his own.
“If we all go off in different directions in pursuit of our own visions of the perfect Brexit, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all,” May said in a warning to Johnson and others who aim to oust her or force her to change course.
“A Brexit that might make Britain stronger 50 years from now is no good to you if it makes your life harder today,” she noted.
Britain’s governing party is deeply divided over the country’s impending departure from the EU, with pro- and anti-EU camps both criticizing the prime minister’s negotiations with the bloc.
With just under six months until Britain leaves the EU on March 29, the speech Wednesday was an attempt by May to solve her conundrum.
The EU has rejected her proposed deal and demanded new ideas from Britain. But pro-exit members of May’s Conservative government oppose any softening of the U.K.’s stance.
So the negotiations with the EU have ground to a halt, U.K. businesses are growing jittery and Conservatives such as Johnson are demanding that the U.K. make a clean break with the bloc — deal or no deal.
Less than three weeks before a make-or-break EU summit in Brussels, May said divorce talks were entering their “toughest phase.”
But she rejected calls by anti-EU members to walk away from the talks, saying that “leaving without a deal — introducing tariffs and costly checks at the border — would be a bad outcome for the U.K. and the EU.”
May’s speech was a direct riposte to Johnson, who told an audience Tuesday that May’s proposal for close post-divorce economic ties with the EU was an “outrage” that would leave Britain unable to strike new trade deals around the world.
May defended her blueprint, which aims to keep Britain aligned with many EU rules in return for remaining in the bloc’s single market for goods. She argued that her plan would preserve the frictionless trade that many businesses depend on, while ensuring “no change whatsoever” to Northern Ireland’s border with Ireland.
The U.K. and the EU agree there must be no customs checks or other barriers along the currently invisible border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. But they don’t agree on how to achieve that, and the issue remains the biggest obstacle to a deal.
May’s speech was a triumph compared with last year’s event, when she was plagued by a cough, interrupted by a prankster and had parts of the stage backdrop fall down as she was speaking.
She reached out to voters whose living standards have been squeezed by stagnating incomes and public-spending cuts since the 2008 global financial crisis. In a major policy shift, May said the government would abandon its long-held policy of slashing public spending in the name of deficit reduction.
“A decade after the financial crash, people need to know that the austerity it led to is over,” she said.
She painted an optimistic picture of post-divorce Britain, saying “our future is full of promise.”
It was an upbeat end to an anxious Conservative conference in Birmingham, central England.
A week ago, the opposition Labor Party met in Liverpool, at an event brimming with energy and confidence. The Conservatives, in contrast, were full of doubt. Many delegates lamented the fact that the departure has drowned out the party’s message on housing, taxation, health care and other big issues.
While anti-EU delegates railed against May’s compromises and the iniquities of Brussels, pro-EU Tories claimed the departure had tainted the party with an inward-looking image that turns off voters, especially the young.
May’s future remains uncertain. Many Conservatives expect her to face a leadership challenge soon after Britain leaves the bloc — or even before.
Pro-exit legislator James Duddridge on Wednesday called the negotiations “an absolute disaster” and said he had added his name to a list of Conservative lawmakers demanding a confidence vote in the prime minister.
A vote will be triggered if 48 legislators ask for one. No one knows yet how many have already submitted their requests.