Theresa May humiliated after being forced to drop Welsh Assembly claim from Brexit speech
3 min read
Theresa May was forced to axe part of her last-ditch Brexit plea after it was found that her voting record undermined a comparison she was due to make with the Welsh Assembly referendum.
The Prime Minister had to row back on her claim that “both sides” accepted the 1997 vote in favour of devolution - after it was revealed that she voted the move down when it came to Parliament the following year.
In a further embarrassment for the PM, she was reminded that the Conservatives' 2005 general election manifesto pledged a new vote which would include the option to scrap the assembly entirely.
The speech, at a pottery factory in Stoke-on-Trent, came just a day before the crucial Commons meaningful vote on her deal agreed with the EU.
In an extract of her address released last night Mrs May was due to say: “When the people of Wales voted by a margin of 0.3%, on a turnout of just over 50%, to endorse the creation of the Welsh Assembly, that result was accepted by both sides and the popular legitimacy of that institution has never seriously been questioned."
But after the blunder was widely reported, the PM ditched the latter section to say only that “the result was accepted by Parliament.”
“Indeed we’ve never had a referendum in the United Kingdom that we’ve not honoured the result of,” she added.
'LEGAL FORCE'
A handful of Tory MPs have swung behind Mrs May's Brexit agreement in recent days, despite having previously vowed to vote it down.
However, it still widely expected to fail to pass in tomorrow's vote, with a host of Conservative backbenchers, the DUP and opposition parties all against it.
Mrs May’s set-piece speech also came minutes after a letter from EU chiefs Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk sought to give assurances to MPs that the Irish backstop cannot be permanent.
But the PM admitted that their pledges, which include assurances that the measure will be “temporary” did not, “go as far as some MPs would like”, given it could not promise an end date or that UK could leave it unilaterally.
"The letters published today have legal force and must be used to interpret the meaning of the withdrawal agreement including in any future arbitration. They make absolutely clear that the backstop is not a threat or a trap,” she said.
She later added: "I fully understand that the new legal and political assurances which are contained in the letters from Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker do not go as far as some MPs would like, but I’m convinced that MPs have the clearest assurances that this is the best deal possible and that it is worthy of their support."
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