Theresa May Tells MPs To Back Her Brexit Deal Or Risk Break-Up Of UK

Theresa May has warned MPs if they vote against her Brexit deal it could lead to Irish reunification and the break-up of the UK, in a last-ditch effort to win support.

With just over 24 . hours to go until the Commons votes on her plan, the prime minister also said the chances of Scottish independence would increase if it was rejected.

“I ask what would a no-deal Brexit do to strengthen the hand of those campaigning for Scottish independence, or indeed those demanding a border poll in Northern Ireland. Surely this is the real threat to our Union,” May told the Commons on Monday afternoon.

MPs are widely expected to inflict a heavy defeat on the prime minister tomorrow.

In a sign of the opposition to the deal on the Tory benches, a government whip resigned on Monday in order to vote against it.

The EU tried to help May by insisting it does not want the controversial Northern Irish backstop arrangement to remain in place permanently following Brexit.

May told MPs the backstop – designed to avoid a hard border in Ireland by keeping the UK closely aligned to EU rules – was the only way to get a deal.

“Rejecting the backstop altogether means no-deal,” she said.

The Withdrawal Agreement makes clear that that backstop comes into effect only if no broader deal on future relations can been reached.

Pro-Brexit Tory MPs, worried about being tied to EU rules indefinitely, want the UK to have the power to withdraw from the backstop without EU approval.

But in its letters published this morning, Brussels did not agree to this.

There was also no indication that the EU was ready to contemplate a fixed deadline date for the backstop to be brought to an end, as many MPs demand.

Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary, said the assurances from the EU were not enough. “If you want a better Brexit deal, if you want a better Brexit, we do have to as MPs vote down the deal tomorrow,” he told a press conference in London.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said the letter from the EU “bolsters our concerns”, as it provided no “legally binding assurances”.

Jeremy Corbyn told the Commons that it was clear that May had failed to secure such assurances from Brussels.

He dismissed the joint letter as no more than “warm words and aspirations”, which “categorically” fell short of the legally binding assurances promised by the prime minister.

The Labour leader repeated his demand that May call a general election to break the Brexit deadlock.