May sticks to Brexit deal as opponents seek formal challenge
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May vowed on Monday to stick to her draft European Union divorce deal as dissenting lawmakers in her own party tried to trigger a leadership challenge.
Since striking a deal with the EU on Tuesday, May has faced the most perilous crisis of her premiership with several cabinet ministers resigning, including her Brexit minister.
May has pledged to fight on, warning that toppling her risks delaying Britain’s exit from the EU, or leaving without a deal, a step that could thrust the world’s fifth largest economy into the unknown.
Even if she stays in place, the level of opposition from eurosceptics in her own Conservative ranks has made clear how hard it will be to get the deal through parliament.
“We have in view a deal that will work for the UK and, let no one be in any doubt, I am determined to deliver it,” May said in a speech to Britain’s premier business lobby, the CBI, to loud applause. “We are not talking about political theory but the reality of people’s lives and livelihoods.
“While the world is changing fast, our geography is not: Europe will always be our most proximate goods market, and ensuring we have free-flowing borders is crucial,” May said, citing the importance of the automotive industry in particular.
Barnier met ministers from the 27 EU governments in Brussels as they try to complete a separate, non-binding “declaration” on plans for a trade and security relationship with Britain that May would agree at a summit in Brussels on Sunday.
Diplomats said many pushed national interests to be included - France on fishing rights, for example, or Spain’s claim to Gibraltar. But there was little concern these would scupper prospects for a text to be ready by Tuesday.
Where there was disagreement among the 27, they said, issues would be put to one side until talks start with Britain next year. May has said she will visit Brussels to discuss the declaration before Sunday.
More than two years after the United Kingdom voted by 52-48 percent to leave the EU, it is still unclear how, on what terms or even if it will leave as planned on March 29, 2019.
Many business chiefs and investors fear politics could torpedo an agreement, thrusting the economy into a no-deal void that they say would weaken the West, spook financial markets and silt up the arteries of trade.
CBI President John Allan said such a Brexit would be a “wrecking ball” for Britain’s economy while CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said politicians were playing a high-stakes game that could lead to an accidental, no-deal departure.
“Surely, surely, we can do better than this,” she said.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the business leaders that his party would not countenance a no-deal Brexit but would also vote against May’s Brexit blueprint.
“After the events of the past week, many people and many businesses will be confused and very, very anxious,” Corbyn said in a speech. “The prime minister has negotiated a botched, worst-of-all-worlds deal which is bad for Britain, leaving the country in an indefinite halfway house without a real say.”