Theresa May to tell MPs to hold their nerve over Brexit
Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to tell MPs today to hold their nerve in the UK’s game of brinksmanship with the EU over Brexit.
May is due to make a statement to MPs at 12.30pm ahead of a debate on Thursday on the next steps for Brexit.
“We now all need to hold our nerve,” May is expected to say, according to the BBC.
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"By getting the changes we need to the backstop; by protecting and enhancing workers' rights and environmental protections; and by enhancing the role of Parliament in the next phase of negotiations I believe we can reach a deal that this House can support," she will say.
The UK is set to leave the EU on 29 March in 45 days time.
The deal, painstakingly negotiated by May’s government over two years, was rejected by parliament last month with a key sticking point being the Irish backstop agreement that could be triggered in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Last month MPs voted to back May in finding an alternative to the backstop.
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The leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom told the BBC that Parliament would support May’s deal "provided the UK can't be held in the backstop against its will permanently".
The EU has said it is not open to negotiations on the withdrawal agreement which includes the agreement on the Irish backstop.
However Leadsom said it would be "an extraordinary outcome" if the EU was "completely intransigent" and could lead to them triggering a no-deal Brexit, the “thing they are seeking to avoid".