Brexit negotiations are once again seeing both sides quickly coming to loggerheads over trade agreements for the United Kingdom post-Brexit, with the European Union’s lead Brexit negotiator delivering warnings on the weekend that the EU is leaning opposed to the UK Chequer’s latest Brexit plan, and the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May has been quick to fire back via the UK Telegraph, stating that she will not be making any concessions that are not in the national interest of Britain, doubling down on continued statements from the PM that Britain will not be undergoing a second referendum.
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“In a stark appeal to Eurosceptic MPs who are opposed to her proposals and concerned that they could be further watered down, she says: “I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest.”
In the article, intended to quell the fears of MPs as they return to Westminster in the coming days, Mrs May also rejects calls for a second referendum, stating that such a move would amount to a “gross betrayal of our democracy”. She also insists that the country would ultimately thrive in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Her intervention comes amid a growing campaign by Brexiteer MPs to scrap the plan agreed at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, in July. Eurosceptics are drawing up an alternative deal that they hope Boris Johnson and David Davis, the former Cabinet ministers, will back when it is unveiled before the Conservative Party conference at the end of this month.
However, in a significant blow to Mrs May, Nick Boles, a Remain-voting influential former minister who previously backed Chequers, today announces that he, too, is dropping his support and will campaign for other Tory moderates to join him. In her article, the Prime Minister states: “We want to leave with a good deal and we are confident we can reach one. But, of course, there is still a lot more negotiating to be done.
“So it is only responsible that we have also spent time this summer preparing for a no-deal scenario, just as the EU have done too … For some sectors there would be real challenges for both the UK and the EU. But we would get through it and go on to thrive. So we will be ready for a no-deal if we need to be.” Mrs May adds: “Neither will I give in to those who want to re-open the whole question with a second referendum … To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy – and a betrayal of that trust.” “
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