Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday told MPs they faced the possibility of Britain exiting the EU with no deal or no Brexit at all if they failed to back her draft agreement with Brussels.
“We can choose to leave with no deal, we can risk no Brexit at all or we can choose to unite and support the best deal that can be negotiated,” Ms. May told parliament, to cheers from some lawmakers when she mentioned the possibility of no Brexit.
Ms. May said she shared the concerns of those who believe a Brexit backstop to avoid a border on the island of Ireland impinges on British sovereignty, but it was an improvement on previous proposals. “The references to the backstop do raise some difficult issues.”
“I fully accept that across the house, there are concerns in relation to the backstop. Indeed, I share some of those concerns,” she said.
Pro-Brexit faction of Tories threatens no-confidence vote
A leader of the pro-Brexit faction of the Conservative Party has threatened to call for a no-confidence vote against Ms. May.
Jacob Rees-Mogg said in Parliament that the draft Brexit deal did not live up to promises Ms. May had made. He asked rhetorically, “should I not write” to Graham Brady, who heads a committee governing Conservative leadership contests.
A letter from Mr. Rees-Mogg would likely be followed by others from pro-Brexit lawmakers.
Under Conservative rules, a confidence vote in the leader is triggered if 15% of Conservative lawmakers currently 48 write a letter to Mr. Brady, head of the party’s so-called 1922 Committee of backbenchers.
If Ms. May lost a vote of the 315 Conservative lawmakers, she would be replaced. If she won, she would be safe from challenge for a year.
Democratic Unionist Party, a May ally, slams draft
The Northern Ireland party that props up Ms. May’s minority government has condemned her draft Brexit deal, saying it could lead to the breakup of the U.K.
Ms. May has relied on the Democratic Unionist Party’s 10 lawmakers to win votes since she lost her parliamentary majority in 2017.
But the party opposes proposals in the Brexit deal to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. The DUP says the plans would treat Northern Ireland different to the rest of the U.K. in trade terms with the EU, weakening the bonds that hold the U.K. together.
The DUP leader in Parliament, Nigel Dodds, said the “choice is now clear- we stand up for the United Kingdom, the whole of the United Kingdom, the integrity of the United Kingdom, or we vote for a vassal state with the breakup of the United Kingdom, that is the choice.”
