Theresa May does little to reassure her Brexit critics at crunch backbenchers meeting
Theresa May faced down her fractious party this evening but offered no new reassurances to the many critics of her beleaguered Brexit policy.
The Prime Minister spoke to a meeting of backbench Conservative MPs – known as the 1922 committee – for just under an hour in a bid to win support for her negotiating stance with the EU.
May is under pressure to resist Brussels demands to keep the UK in the EU's customs union indefinitely after Brexit if no trade deal can be brought into force by the end of December 2020.
There is also anger her plan to tie the UK to the EU's rules on goods and agriculture will see the government limited in the type of trade deals it can strike after Brexit.
The lead up to her appearance had been dominated by lurid language from unnamed Tories, with one claiming she was going to enter the “killing zone” and another saying May should “bring her own noose” to the meeting.
Despite the outcry over the comments from politicians on all sides, one former minister repeated the stabbing metaphor as they entered the meeting.
Referring to the practice of MPs banging desks to show support for the PM, the MP said: “They can only bang with one hand because in the other hand they have a knife.”
May was asked to set out what concessions Brussels had made to the UK in the negotiations, and to give a cast iron guarantee that Britain would not be locked in the EU’s customs union indefinitely.
May told MPs she would deliver Brexit on March 29 2019 no matter what happens, according to a source in the room.
One Cabinet minister described the Prime Minister’s speech as “great” through gritted teeth, while a former member of her top team told City PM: “Much as I expected. No great shakes.”
May entered the room to the expected banging and cheering, but further indications of support were more muted during her appearance.
“I’m been into many of those meetings, we all know how it works,” said one critic of May who believed much of the cheering had been orchestrated by Downing Street loyalists.
Brexiteers Andrew Bridgen and Sir Edward Leigh were among those who quizzed the PM, with the former wanting to know what compromises May had secured from Brussels in the talks.
“She explained very clearly, and she gave several examples, but one for example was that the EU were initially saying that EU nationals living in the UK should be allowed to appeal to the ECJ over the UK. She said that now is not the case. UK courts will have supremacy,” Tory MP Michael Fabricant revealed after the meeting.
When asked what May’s best line was to her MPs, Fabricant said: “She said it’s always tough at the end of a negotiation when we are getting close to a deal, especially when you’re dealing with the EU. That got a laugh.”
He added: "It was very very good, very encouraging, people were praising her. One or two questions, very tangible questions about Europe which she answered and as I said not Daniella in the lions’ den, but a petting zoo actually."
Another source said speculation over the future of her leadership – fuelled by rumours the 48 letters of no confidence needed to trigger a contest had been sent in – was not mentioned.
Many MPs leaving the room talked up May's performance, with one calling it "marvellous".