British PM May battles to save Brexit deal as ministers quit

[November 15, 2018]  By Elizabeth Piper, Kylie MacLellan and William James

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May battled on Thursday to save a draft divorce deal with the European Union after her Brexit secretary and other ministers quit in protest at an agreement they say will trap Britain in the bloc's orbit for years.

Just over 12 hours after May announced that her team of top ministers had agreed to the terms of the draft agreement, Brexit minister Dominic Raab and work and pensions minister Esther McVey quit, saying they could not support it.

Their departure, the resignations of two junior ministers and reports others were considering quitting, shakes May's divided government and her Brexit strategy, raising the prospect of Britain leaving the EU without a deal. Some lawmakers openly questioned whether May's government could survive.

Raab is the second Brexit secretary to quit over May's plans to leave the EU, the biggest shift in British policy in more than 40 years. By leaving now, some suggested that Raab could be positioning himself as a possible successor to May.

But the prime minister showed little sign of backing down. In parliament she warned lawmakers they now faced a stark decision.

"The choice is clear. 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," she said.

She said those lawmakers who believed she could get a deal that did not include a backstop arrangement to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland were wrong.

Her spokesman said May would fight any vote of confidence in her premiership and she intended to be prime minister when Britain leaves the bloc in March next year.

STRATEGY IN DOUBT

In the markets, sterling was set for its second biggest drop this year on the opposition to the draft agreement.

British financial regulators called major banks asking for feedback on market conditions because of sharp falls in the pound and shares, sources said.

In parliament, lawmakers from her Conservative Party and the opposition parties took turns to rubbish the draft deal, a sign May faces an all but impossible task to get the agreement through the House of Commons.

Many criticized the draft deal, agreed with the EU on Tuesday, for making Britain a "vassal" state, beholden to the bloc's rules even after leaving on March 29.

Others said an agreement on the so-called backstop would tear Britain apart, leaving Northern Ireland all but in the EU's single market.

"It is ... mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons. The stark reality is that it was dead on arrival," Conservative lawmaker Mark Francois said.

It took an hour of parliamentary questions before she was asked a friendly, rather than hostile, one, with a Conservative lawmaker saying May had done the best she could.

But it was the backstop arrangement, which would see Britain and the EU establishing a single customs territory, that spurred most of the criticism.

"I cannot reconcile the terms of the proposed deal with the promises we made to the country in our manifesto at the last election," Raab said.

Less than five months until Britain leaves the EU, the resignations put May's Brexit strategy in doubt.

EU leaders are ready to meet on Nov. 25 to sign off on the divorce deal, or Withdrawal Agreement, but French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe summed up the uncertainty when he said events in London raised concerns about whether it would be ratified.

"We need to prepare ourselves for a no-deal Brexit," he said.

Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the EU Dominic Raab leaves 10 Downing Street, London, Britain, November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

One eurosceptic lawmaker in May's Conservative Party said more colleagues were either putting in letters to trigger a no confidence vote in her leadership or were increasingly minded to do so. A challenge is triggered if 48 Conservatives write such letters. May could be toppled if 158 of her 315 lawmakers vote against her.

'DEAD IN THE WATER'

Britain's opposition Labour Party said the government was "falling apart".

"Theresa May has no authority left and is clearly incapable of delivering a Brexit deal that commands even the support of her cabinet, let alone parliament and the people of our country," said Jon Trickett, a member of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's senior team.

Raab, 44, was appointed to the role of Brexit secretary in July after the resignation of his predecessor David Davis, who also quit in protest at May's Brexit strategy.

At the heart of Raab's criticism of May's deal was the belief that the pursuit of a customs union with the EU would be the "starting point" for talks on the future relationship with the bloc, "severely prejudicing" what Britain could achieve.

He said May's plan threatened the integrity of Britain and he could not support an indefinite backstop arrangement.

The backstop arrangement, to come into force if a future trade deal does not prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, has been the main obstacle to a deal with the bloc and agreement of her ministers.

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up May in parliament, had threatened to pull its support from the minority government if the backstop meant the province was treated differently from the rest of mainland Britain.

"No democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit the arrangement," Raab said in his resignation letter.

Eurosceptics in May's party have long feared the prime minister was leading Britain toward a customs union with the EU, something that, they say, would mean a Brexit in name only.

Ian Blackford, the Scottish National Party's leader in the House of Commons, said the deal was "dead in the water".

(Additional reporting by Sarah Young, Kate Holton, Guy Faulconbridge; Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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