Current Brexit Deal Only Option, May Writes in Mail on Sunday
Current Brexit Deal Only Option, May Writes in Mail on Sunday
(Bloomberg) -- The Brexit deal that Theresa May unveiled last week is the only option for Britain to exit the European Union, the U.K. prime minister wrote in the Mail on Sunday.
“I am not going to Brussels to compromise our national interest,” she wrote. “I am going to fight for it. I am going to fight for our Brexit deal -- because it is the right deal for Britain.”
May has been trying to tamp down rebellions within the Conservative Party over her Brexit plan, as it lays out a closer relationship to the EU single market than many pro-Brexit campaigners hoped. The blueprint, which calls for a new U.K.-EU “free trade area,” with interlinked customs regimes, prompted the resignations of Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and May’s chief Brexit negotiator David Davis, helping to fuel speculation of a possible leadership challenge.
In the letter, May warns parliamentarians seeking to scuttle the plan -- and also those trying to force amendments to strengthen post-Brexit EU ties -- that they risk causing “a damaging and disorderly Brexit” and the possibility of the U.K. crashing out of the EU with no Brexit deal.
“As I have said many times, we can get a good deal and that is what is best for Britain,” said wore. “But we should also prepare for no deal. Not to do so would be grossly irresponsible. So I urge Parliamentarians on all sides to consider this when they are voting.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Tan in Hong Kong at ztan39@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fion Li at fli59@bloomberg.net, Andrew Davis, Garfield Reynolds
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