Theresa May pleads with MPs to back her Brexit deal or risk never leaving the EU
3 min read
Theresa May has issued a last-ditch plea to MPs to back her Brexit deal or risk never leaving the European Union.
The Prime Minister said failure to vote through her deal when it comes before the Commons for the third time this week would mean “we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever”.
She said a fresh rejection of her blueprint would likely mean the UK participating in the EU Parliament elections - an outcome she branded a “collective political failure”.
And she is set to tell MPs voting down her deal would leave the UK in a “Hotel California Brexit” where “you can check out, but you can never leave”.
The Government will ask for a long Brexit extension from the EU if MPs refuse a third time to back the Brexit deal Mrs May struck with the bloc.
The Prime Minister has been in last-ditch talks with her confidence and supply partners the DUP, as well as eurosceptics in her own party, in an effort to win their support.
In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, she said voting down her deal again would mean negotiations going back to “square one” and a delay so long the UK would have to vote in new MEPs.
“The idea of the British people going to the polls to elect MEPs three years after voting to leave the EU hardly bears thinking about,” she said.
“There could be no more potent symbol of Parliament’s collective political failure.”
She added: “If Parliament can find a way to back the Brexit deal before European Council, the UK will leave the EU this spring, without having to take part in the European elections, and we can get on with building our future relationship with the EU.
“If it cannot, we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever.”
According to the Sunday Times she will refer to the Eagles song Hotel California as she makes her final pitch to MPs this week - a song critics have used to describe her own deal.
The DUP is asking for involvement in the future trade negotiations with the EU in return for supporting the Brexit deal, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
But a spokesman for the party insisted it was not demanding new cash for Northern Ireland - after claims it could use its confidence and supply deal with the PM as leverage.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will this week appeal to fellow opposition parties to back his preferred form of Brexit which would see the UK remain in a customs union with the bloc.
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