Prime Minister Theresa May has been savaged by callers over her Brexit deal on a radio phone-in.
Appearing on LBC's Nick Ferrari Show, Mrs May was told to quit, make way for Jacob Rees-Mogg and even compared to former premier Neville Chamberlain, notorious for his policy of appeasement towards Hitler.
Caller John, from Gillingham, labelled Mrs May a "modern-day Chamberlain", the prime minister who famously claimed to have secured "peace for our time" in negotiations with Hitler, only for the Second World War to break out the following year.
John asked the Prime Minister: "Do you consider yourself the modern-day Chamberlain, who also went to Europe and negotiated with a foreign power and came back having appeased that foreign power and not stood up for our country?
"I would like you to stand up for our country and stand up for what's best for our country. Appeasing a foreign power and locking us in forever is not doing that."
Mrs May replied: "No I don't, and the reason is this: We are not going to be locked in forever to something that we don't want."
Conservative-supporting councillor Dan, from Louth, called on Mrs May to stand down, saying he "commended" the PM for trying to strike a Brexit deal with the EU, but "sadly that has not worked".
He asked her: "Please Prime Minister, tell me why do you think you should stay on as PM when you have failed - despite your no doubt honourable intentions - to (deliver on) the referendum result?
"If you cannot do that, I respectfully ask you to do the right thing in the national interest and stand down to allow someone from the Brexit camp to take the lead. There is still time to sort this out."
Mrs May responded by going through details of the draft withdrawal agreement.
She said: "You're absolutely right that for a lot of people who voted Leave, what they wanted to do was make sure that decisions on things like who can come into this country would be taken by us here in the UK, and not by Brussels, and that's exactly what the deal I've negotiated delivers."
LBC phone-in caller Gary, from Acton in west London, said that it appeared the EU had "got the better deal" in negotiations, and asked Mrs May: "Don't you think Jacob Rees-Mogg is the person to lead us at the moment?"
She replied: "A lot of people look at this and think the only side that's given anything is the UK. Actually that's not the case."
Mrs May said that the EU had initially wanted the European Court of Justice to have jurisdiction in a wide range of areas of UK life following Brexit.
"We are very clear that that cannot be the case, and that's what we've negotiated," she said.
"There are other areas too where the EU has felt that a particular approach is right and we've said no. We've held out, we've held our ground and they've given in to us.
"But it's a negotiation and any negotiation, complex as it is, is actually a negotiation which leads to compromises."
However, some callers were supportive of the Prime Minister, with Michael from Derry in Northern Ireland supporting the deal and Ellen, from Alicante in Spain, saying she had been left in the lurch by Brexiteers.
Michael said: "I'm from the North and when we voted in the majority to Remain, myself included, I actually feel the Prime Minister's deal will be of huge benefit to the region.
"Can the Prime Minister give any reassurance that the bespoke deal won't be scuppered by her confidence and supply partners, the DUP?"
Mrs May explained there were complications over the Northern Irish border but said she believed she had got the best deal possible and hoped MPs would act in the national interest.
And British expat Ellen told the PM she had "every sympathy" for her as she endured criticism from her hard Brexit colleagues.
"Those people who started this all off have all walked away and left you to it and they just want to stand on the sidelines shouting," she told Mrs May.
Responding to Ellen's concern about the status of expats living in EU countries in the case of a no-deal Brexit, Mrs May said: "If there's no deal, I have said that EU citizens living here in the UK will have their rights protected, and I would expect other countries in the EU to do the same for UK citizens living in their countries.
"I would hope that other countries will show the same respect for people who've chosen to live (there)."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel