Theresa May makes plea for Tory unity and declares: I do believe in Brexit
6 min read
Theresa May has urged her warring party to get behind her plans for leaving the European Union as she declared: “I do believe in Brexit.”
The Prime Minister faced fresh criticism of her Chequers proposals from former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who branded the UK’s negotiating stance “deranged” and questioned Mrs May’s commitment to quitting the EU.
He told The Sunday Times: "Unlike the Prime Minister I fought for this, I believe in it, I think it’s the right thing for our country and I think that what is happening now is, alas, not what people were promised in 2016."
But a defiant PM hit back as the Conservative conference got underway in Birmingham - and called on her troops to “come together and get the best deal for Britain”.
She told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I do believe in Brexit.
“But, crucially, I believe in delivering Brexit in a way that respects the vote and delivers on the vote of the British people while also protecting our union, protecting jobs and ensuring that we make a success of Brexit for the future.
“That's why I'm being ambitious for this country. That's why I want us to get a really good free trade deal with the European Union which is what lies at the heart of the Chequers plan."
Mrs May is facing growing pressure from Brexiteers in her party to ditch her Chequers plan, which seeks close customs ties and a common rulebook on goods traded with the EU in a bid to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.
Eurosceptics are instead pressing the PM to negotiate a Canada-style free trade agreement with the European Union, with Mr Johnson last week telling the Prime Minister to rip up the existing draft withdrawal agreement the UK agreed with Brussels and demand talks on a “Super Canada” arrangement.
But Mrs May dismissed that idea on Sunday, and said: “Chequers is a free trade deal.”
She told the programme: “Canada for the UK is not on the table from the EU…
"What they have on the table is a basic free trade agreement for Great Britain, [with] Northern Ireland remaining in most of the single market and the customs union, effectively creating a customs border between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, effectively carving the United Kingdom into two customs territories, carving Northern Ireland away from the rest of the UK."
Mrs May added: “That is unacceptable to us."
In a message to her MPs after EU leaders heaped scorn on her Chequers plan during talks in Salzburg, the Prime Minister said talks with the EU were “always going to get toughest towards the end” - and urged her party to focus on the “national interest”.
She said: “I always said it was going to be tough, and it was. But we're continuing to focus on getting a good deal for the UK.
“Now that's about understanding where the EU has concerns with the proposals we've put before them. It's about understanding what their counter-proposals might be. But what drives me, what drives the government is that national interest.
“That's why I'm saying to everybody in politics today, let's focus on the national interest. Let's focus on ensuring that we're working to get the really good deal that this country deserves."
But Labour accused the Conservatives of "tinkering around the edges" as Mrs May tried to shift focus to domestic policy with a tax hike on foreign-owned properties.
Party chairman Ian Lavery said: "The Tories are clearly too busy fighting amongst themselves and have neither the ideas nor the desire to offer real solutions to the problems they have caused.”
WINDRUSH
The Prime Minister’s set-piece conference interview also saw her face tough questions on the treatment of the Windrush generation.
The government faced a major scandal earlier this year when it emerged that members of the generation of post-war Caribbean arrivals to the UK had been swept up in an immigration clampdown, losing access to public services - and in some cases facing deportation.
But Mrs May refused to apologise for the broader ‘hostile environment’ policy launched by the Home Office during her time as Home Secretary, instead launching a defence of the Government’s hardline immigration stance
“The point of the policy was to ensure that those people who were here in the United Kingdom illegally were identified and that appropriate action was taken,” she said.
Mrs May added: “What went wrong was that people from the Windrush generation who were here legally, who had every right to be here, who had helped to build our great national institutions, found themselves unable to show that through documentation and got caught up in that.
“But I think for most people… they do want to know that the government is taking action against those people who come to this country illegally or stay in this country illegally. What we need to do is make sure that in doing that we don't find people who have every right to be here being caught up in it.”
She also declined to give a number when asked how many Windrush citizens had lost their homes, been refused NHS treatment or been denied access to benefits as a result of the Government's policies.
The Prime Minister said: “What we have been doing is looking at every aspect of the the impact of people from the Windrush generation... As I say, these people were British. We have apologised for what happened to people.
“This should never have happened to people and it is right that we are making every effort… It's not just about papers, it's not just about status, it's about giving people the confidence and the reassurance of knowing that what they always felt and knew and what everybody else always felt and knew is not in question. They're part of us."
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