AN exasperated Theresa May has warned the EU27 that she is prepared to bring down the entire Brexit process unless it is willing to consider key changes to the Withdrawal Agreement to help her push it through the Commons next month.
The Prime Minister told her fellow leaders that if they were not willing to make more concessions on the Irish backstop, then she might just as well hold the meaningful vote next week; in the circumstances, this would lead to a crushing defeat.
The high-stakes move came as the SNP leadership is believed to be preparing to up the ante by putting down its own confidence motion in the Conservative Government next week.
Senior party sources have already said such a move was “inevitable” if Mrs May failed during her Commons statement on Monday to say that she had won significant concessions from the EU27.
After the European Council, Mrs May simply said that her fellow leaders had agreed that “further clarification and discussion” was possible.
Earlier this week, Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, alongside senior figures from other parties challenged Jeremy Corbyn to “show leadership” by putting down a confidence motion in the Tory Government, threatening to do so within 24 hours if he did not. Yet nothing happened.
The Herald asked the SNP if it would table a confidence vote in the Tory Government next week. A source simply said the party was still seeking to work with the Labour leader “to bring down the Tory Government and prevent a Tory Brexit”.
In Brussels, Mrs May’s mood appeared to darken after the EU issued a statement rejecting making any concessions on the backstop and Jean-Claude Juncker described the state of Britain’s debate as “nebulous”.
In a late night press conference on Thursday, the European Commission President insisted the EU’s position was “crystal clear” and demanded clarity from the UK. He told reporters: “It is time for the UK to say what they want instead of asking us to say what we want.”
On Friday morning as EU leaders prepared for the second day of talks, the PM, visibly angry, confronted Mr Juncker in front of a TV camera.
“What did you call me? You called me nebulous,” she told him. Holding her arm, a clearly defensive Commission President replied: “No I didn’t, no I didn’t.”
The evening before, Mr Juncker, speaking in French, had told a press conference that the state of Britain’s Brexit debate was “nebulous and imprecise”.
At a post-summit press conference on Friday, he joked about his spat with Mrs May. The Commission President explained that he had been able to convince her that his remarks had in fact referred to the wider Brexit debate in the UK.
"After having checked what I said yesterday night, she was kissing me," he said to laughter.
But Mr Juncker also acknowledged the EU needed to "bring down the temperature".
At the same time, however, Donald Tusk, the European Council President, made clear he had "no mandate" to open new negotiations but would remain at Mrs May's "disposal".
He insisted the EU had treated the PM with the “greatest respect; all of us,” before adding: “My impression is in fact we have treated Prime Minister May with much greater empathy and respect than some British MPs, for sure."
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In her post-summit press conference, the PM described her public spat with Mr Juncker as a “robust discussion”. She stressed that she had been "crystal clear" in her bid to get further assurances from the EU and that it was in the “overwhelming interest of all our people” in the EU and the UK to “get this over the line”.
At Westminster, Mr Corbyn said: "The last 24 hours have confirmed Theresa May's Brexit deal is dead in the water. The Prime Minister has utterly failed in her attempts to deliver any meaningful changes to her botched deal."
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