UK ministers may quit if May fails to offer alternative Brexit plan: Report
A number of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s ministers have threatened to resign if she does not offer an alternative plan to her Brexit proposal, according to a report.
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The Telegraph newspaper, citing anonymous sources, reported late on Friday that the ministers will demand a “Plan B” to the premier’s “Chequers” proposal at a Cabinet meeting on Monday.
That plan had already been criticized by European Union leaders in Salzburg earlier in the week, prompting May to defiantly challenge them to make their own proposals.
Pro-Brexit members of May’s party on Friday had welcomed her defiant tone, but her Chequers plan has many domestic critics, too.
The Telegraph said there was “speculation” that work and pensions minister Esther McVey might walk out of Monday’s meeting if May presented to alternative, while international development minister Penny Mordaunt was also expected to resign.
Earlier on Friday, Mordaunt said that support was increasing in Britain for an exit from the EU because of the EU’s attitude
May accused the European Union on Friday of creating an “impasse” in Brexit negotiations by flatly rejecting her proposals.
With media declaring that May had been “humiliated” by EU leaders, the prime minister used a televised statement from No. 10 Downing Street to insist she was ready to take Britain out of the bloc without a deal.
“Throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect,” she said. “The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it.”
The comments triggered a dramatic fall in the pound amid fears that a disruptive no deal Brexit was more likely.
May’s statement followed a tense EU summit in Salzburg, which dashed hopes of a breakthrough in stalled negotiations with only six months to go until Britain leaves the bloc on March 29.
European Council President Donald Tusk said at the meeting that parts of May’s plan simply “will not work.”
The UK and EU both want to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland but cannot agree agree on how to achieve that.
Brussels has pressed London to accept its interim "backstop" plan which would keep Northern Ireland aligned with the EU’s trading rules. May has rejected that plan, arguing it would divide up the UK.
