Theresa May: Chequers plan or no deal

British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned rebels in her ruling Conservative party that unless they support her potential Brexit deal with the EU they will face a no deal.

The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, nearly three years after 52 percent of Britons voted in favour of ending the country’s 43-year membership with the EU and its predecessor the European Economic Community.

With just six months to go, there is no full exit agreement and some Conservative MPs have threatened to vote down a deal if she manages to get one.

“I think that the alternative to that will be having no deal,” a defiant May told the BBC on Monday.

If May fails to negotiate an agreement on the terms of Brexit before March 29, a no-deal scenario could mean the UK would start trading with the EU under World Trade Organization rules.

This would have uncertain consequences for Britons living in EU countries and EU citizens living in the UK.

In her interview with the BBC’s Panorama, May also said there needs to be “friction-free movement of goods” with no customs or regulatory checks between the UK and EU on the island of Ireland.

Her comments in a BBC Panorama interview came as Boris Johnson mounted another attack on Mrs May’s strategy, claiming that the issue of the Irish border is being used to turn the UK into a ‘vassal state’ and that talks will end in a “spectacular political car crash”.

Mr Johnson said the European Union’s fallback position for the Irish border would mean Northern Ireland was “annexed” by Brussels. Alternative plans set out by Mrs May would “effectively” keep Britain in the bloc, he added.

However the PM has said the counter-proposal to her Chequers plan is “still a hard border” and hers is the only way that does not “carve up the United Kingdom” and put the Union at risk.

May has repeatedly insisted her Brexit plan will ensure a free-flowing Irish Border after Brexit and not a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

A hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland would breach the Good Friday peace agreement.

Reports suggest that the EU is preparing to accept use of technology to avoid the need for new border infrastructure in Ireland and checks on goods being shipped between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Brussels’ current proposal is to effectively keep Northern Ireland in the EU customs union until a comprehensive trade deal with the UK is agreed, something that the DUP and political parties in Scotland have rejected.

Mrs May said there needs to be “friction-free” movement of goods across the Irish border, without customs or regulatory checks between the UK and EU, after Brexit. She said that the counter-proposal will not “solve the issue of no hard border by having a hard border 20km inside Ireland”.

“The people of Northern Ireland deserve to be listened to in these negotiations by the UK Government, as do people elsewhere in this country,” she told the BBC. “I want to ensure that as we go forward we have that strong union… Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. They don’t want a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.