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May mulls bold offer to get support for Brexit deal

May 20, 2019 00:00:00


LONDON, May 19 (BBC): Theresa May has said a "new and improved" Brexit deal will be put to MPs when they vote on the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill in early June.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Mrs May said the bill will be a "bold offer".

Part of the offer will be around workers' rights, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn said he would look at the proposals "very carefully" but "can't give it a blank cheque".

It comes after the government's talks with Labour over Brexit broke down.

Mrs May announced this week that MPs will vote on the bill - which would bring the withdrawal agreement into UK law - in the week beginning 3 June. If the bill is not passed, the default position is that the UK will leave the EU on 31 October without a deal.

Labour has said it will vote against the bill while many Conservative MPs also remain opposed, meaning the legislation could fail to clear its first parliamentary hurdle.

But in her Sunday Times piece, Mrs May said she will "not be simply asking MPs to think again" on the same deal that they have repeatedly rejected - but on "an improved packaged of measures that I believe can win new support".

The PM said she wanted MPs to consider the new deal "with fresh pairs of eyes - and to give it their support".

And so with Theresa May's promise of a "new and improved" Brexit deal - MPs will be wondering what exactly has changed.

A promise of a further referendum would win plenty of support from Labour but Downing Street's ruled that out.

Changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Northern Ireland backstop, would sway the DUP and many of her own MPs, but the EU won't agree to that.

Additions on workers' rights and environmental protections might be enough to sway a few Labour votes.

And there may be - after a series of votes in Parliament - some movement on the UK's future customs relationship with the EU, but that is as likely to turn off Tory MPs as it is to woo the opposition.

Not for the first time there appear to be no good options for Theresa May.

But a "bold offer" is quite a promise to make, and if her deal has a hope of passing, she will somehow have to live up to it.

Mr Stewart suggested the two main parties were "about half an inch apart" on the three main issues under discussion - protecting employment rights and environmental standards and having a strong and flexible trading relationship with both the EU and other countries.

"None of us want to remain in the European Union, none of us want a no-deal Brexit which means logically there has to be a deal," he said.

"Within the terms of a Brexit deal, I don't believe there's anything that Jeremy Corbyn or we want that's that far apart."

Mr Corbyn said what was being talked about was "not fundamentally different" from what No 10 had already promised and as it stood, Labour would oppose the bill.

While official talks would not be re-started, he said Labour "reserved the right" to consider new proposals - stressing he wanted the UK to have scope to go beyond EU employment and environmental standards and not just keep pace with them.

On the issue of another referendum, he said Labour had kept the option on the table but any vote would have to be on a "credible" deal - which he suggested did not exist right now.


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