Theresa May says Brexit deal is near as talks enter endgame
Theresa May has declared that the Brexit talks are entering the endgame, though she warned that the UK would not accept an agreement “at any cost.”
Speaking to a senior City audience at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, the Prime Minister described the negotiations as “immensely difficult” but insisted she would not shy away from tough choices about the UK's future.
Her comments came after the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier told diplomats in Brussels the outline of an exit deal was ready to be agreed by the UK cabinet as soon as tomorrow.
Downing Street officials, who are still grappling with a divided Tory party, played down the comments, with a spokesperson saying the claim needed to be taken with a “bucket of salt”.
The back and forth of leaks and briefings about the progress of the talks led to volatile swings in the pound, with sterling rising to £1.2932 against the dollar by mid-afternoon before falling to 1.2848.
May used her speech at the Guildhall in the heart of the Square Mile to issue a veiled warning to Brussels not to try to bounce the UK into backing a deal, as time ticks down to departure day on March 29 2019.
She said: “The negotiations for our departure are now in the endgame. And we are working extremely hard, through the night, to make progress on the remaining issues in the Withdrawal Agreement, which are significant.”
She added: “Overwhelmingly, the British people want us to get on with delivering Brexit, and I am determined to deliver for them.
“I want them to know that I will not compromise on what people voted for in the referendum. This will not be an agreement at any cost.”
Time is running out for the two sides to reach an agreement in time for a special Brexit summit of EU leaders to be held before the end of November, with the EU wanting to see a deal on the table by close of play on Wednesday.
UK and EU negotiators were locked in talks until the early hours of Monday morning, but were unable to resolve issues around the Irish backstop dispute.
Even if May is able to reach an agreement with Brussels on the terms of the UK's departure from the EU, she faces a tough task getting her own Cabinet and MPs to back the deal.
International development secretary Penny Mordaunt, a Brexit campaigner in the 2016 referendum, warned May she would not be able to railroad any agreement through cabinet.
“The important thing is that there’s two checks on this deal – there’s cabinet and there’s parliament. And so cabinet’s job is to put something to parliament that is going to deliver on the referendum result. We need to work together as a cabinet to do that. And I’m going to be supporting the prime minister to get a good deal for this country,” Mordaunt said.
As of this evening, Cabinet ministers have still not received a copy of the agenda for tomorrow's meeting, a move described by one source as "definitely unusual."
While Downing Street maintained that the final deal is not due to be discussed at the cabinet meeting, Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister who resigned in protest at May's so-called Chequers plan, told City PM: “I hope and pray this is not procrastination but the emergence of the possibility of a better deal."