Theresa May insists Britain will leave EU next March - minutes after warning Brexit could be stopped
3 min read
Theresa May sparked confusion today when she said the UK would leave the EU in March next year - just minutes after warning MPs Brexit could be halted.
In an apparent shift in position, the PM today ditched warnings that voting down her agreement with the EU could lead to a no-deal departure, but insisted it could end up cancelling Brexit altogether.
However asked by a pro-Brexit Cabinet minister just moments later if the UK would definitely quit the bloc in March 2019, the PM said she could indeed give that "assurance".
The Prime Minister has repeatedly told MPs that voting down her agreement could lead to a no-deal Brexit, which many experts have said could cause major economic disruption.
But Cabinet minister Amber Rudd this morning said there was no majority in the Commons for quitting the EU on World Trade Organisation rules, so it would never happen.
She was echoed by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss, who told BBC 5 Live MPs could put the country "in serious danger of not leaving at all" if they reject the deal.
Mrs May was pressed on the comments by Jeremy Corbyn when she went toe-to-toe with the Labour leader at Prime Minister's Questions today.
She told him: “If you look at the alternative to having that deal with the European Union, it will either be more uncertainty, more division, or it could risk no Brexit at all.”
But just minutes later the Prime Minister was asked by Tory MP Esther McVey - who quit the Cabinet in protest at the Brexit plan - whether the UK would definitely leave in March 2019 as planned.
Mrs May responded: "I can give her the assurance that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 29 March 2019."
'HALF-BAKED DEAL'
Elsewhere in the session, the Labour leader accused the Prime Minister - who is facing intense pressure from her own backbenchers to change the Brexit agreement - of coming up with a “half-baked” plan which he branded a “failure”.
“Instead of giving confidence to the millions of people who voted both Leave and Remain this half-baked deal fails to give any hope that can bring the country together again,” he said.
“Isn’t it the case that Parliament will rightly reject this deal, this bad deal? And if the Government can’t negotiate an alternative then they should make way for those who can and will?”
But Mrs May shot back: “The public gave us an instruction to leave the European Union and we should all be acting to deliver that. All he wants to do is to play party politics....
“He’s opposing a deal he hasn’t read. He’s promising a deal he can’t negotiate. He’s telling Leave voters one thing and Remain voters another. Whatever the Rt Hon Gentleman might do, I will act in the national interest.”
'EU TENTACLES'
Mrs May also came under fire from one of her own Brexiteer MPs during the heated Commons exchange.
Romford MP Andrew Rosindell said voters were “deeply unhappy by the proposed EU deal which they believe does not represent the Brexit they voted for”.
He asked: “Will she now, even at this late stage, please think again and instead lead our country in a new direction, completely cutting away the tentacles of the EU over our cherished island nation once and for all?”
But the Prime Minister - who will now travel to Brussels for further talks with the European Union - insisted the agreement delivered on key pledges on migration, judicial independence and slashing financial contributions to the bloc.
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