May wins cabinet backing for Brexit deal

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Europe

British Prime Minister Theresa May won the support of her bitterly divided cabinet on Wednesday for a draft divorce deal with the European Union (EU) that has put both Brexit and her leadership at stake.

May emerged from a five-hour meeting with ministers that had sent the value of the pound gyrating to announce she had the government's "collective" backing to move ahead with the plan.

"The collective decision of cabinet was that the government should agree the draft withdrawal agreement and the outline political declaration," May said outside her Downing Street office.

A spokesman said the meeting ended without any explicit threats of resignation and everyone unwinding with a glass of wine and some snacks.

But the embattled leader conceded that she could face even stronger resistance when she takes the 585-page text to parliament for approval next month.

Pro-Europe protesters gather in front of Downing Street in Whitehall in London, UK, November 14, 2018. /VCG Photo

May told parliament on earlier Wednesday that a draft Brexit deal struck by British and EU negotiators delivered on the result of the 2016 referendum.

"What we have been negotiating is a deal that does deliver on the vote of the British people," May told rowdy MPs after a barrage of criticism from hardliners in her own Conservative Party who said the agreement included unacceptable compromises.

In the referendum, 52 percent voted for Britain to leave the European Union after four decades of membership.

The government has said Britain will also leave the European single market and customs union. Britain is set to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019. May defended her agreement in front of MPs saying it would guarantee an end to unlimited immigration from the EU and would allow Britain to set its own trade policy.

She said the agreement included a backstop to avoid a hard border in Ireland but added that this would be a temporary "insurance policy" if no future relationship is agreed.

"We want to bring the future relationship into place at the end of December 2020," she said.

But Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said the agreement "breaches the prime minister's own red lines" and said negotiations with Brussels had been shambolic. "This government spent two years negotiating a bad deal that will leave the country in an indefinite half-way house," he said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London, November 14, 2018. /VCG Photo

Conservative MP Peter Bone, a leading pro-Brexit lawmaker, also criticized May. "You are not delivering the Brexit people voted for and today you will lose the support of many Conservative MPs and millions of voters," Bone said.

French President Emmanuel Macron considers the draft Brexit deal as an encouraging sign but remains cautious as the text still needs to be examined in detail, said government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux.

"It's an encouraging sign considering what happened in the last weeks or months, but we obviously remain very prudent," said Griveaux on Wednesday, speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting.

"We will take the time to examine the draft deal in detail and there will be an agreement when heads of states and governments have had the possibility to go through the draft text in detail," he added, reporting Macron's comments to the cabinet.

An emergency EU summit to sign off the Brexit deal between London and Brussels could take place on November 25, Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday.

(With inputs from agencies)