Theresa May warns there could be ‘no Brexit at all’, as Donald Trump says he spoke about it with the Queen

British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned there may be “no Brexit at all” because of continued attempts to undermine her plan to leave the European Union.

 

“My message to the country this weekend is simple: we need to keep our eyes on the prize,” Ms May wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

“If we don’t, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all.”

Earlier this week, two senior ministers resigned in protest at Ms May’s plans for trade with the EUafter Britain leaves the bloc next March.

Her blueprint was then criticised in a newspaper interview by US President Donald Trump, a position he backtracked on during a meeting with Ms May on Friday.

Ms May also wrote in the Mail on Sunday article that Britain would take a tough stance in its next round of negotiations with the EU.

“Some people have asked whether our Brexit deal is just a starting point from which we will regress,” she said.

“Let me be clear. Our Brexit deal is not some long wish-list from which negotiators get to pick and choose. It is a complete plan with a set of outcomes that are non-negotiable.”

 

Ms May does not yet have a Brexit deal with the EU, so the British Government has stepped up planning for a so-called “no deal” Brexit that could spook financial markets and dislocate trade flows across Europe and beyond.

Ms May has repeatedly said Brexit would happen and has ruled out a re-run of the 2016 referendum, although French President Emmanuel Macron and billionaire investor George Soros have suggested that Britain could still change its mind.

David Davis, who resigned as Brexit Secretary last week, said it was an “astonishingly dishonest claim” to say there was no worked-out alternative to Ms May’s plan.

Writing in the Sunday Times, he said her plan would allow EU regulations to harm British manufacturers.

“Be in no doubt: under the government’s proposal our fingers would still be caught in this mangle and the EU would use it ruthlessly to punish us for leaving and handicap our future competitiveness,” Mr Davis said.

Trump says he spoke to Queen on Brexit

 

Before leaving Britain for a summit in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump breached British Royal protocol by publicly disclosing the details of a conversation he had with Queen Elizabeth about the complexities of Brexit.

When asked if he discussed Brexit with the monarch as they met for tea at Windsor Castle on Friday, Mr Trump said:

“I did. She said it’s a very — and she’s right — it’s a very complex problem, I think nobody had any idea how complex that was going to be.

“Everyone thought it was going to be, ‘Oh it’s simple, we join or don’t join, or let’s see what happens’.”

 

Speaking of the Queen, Mr Trump was quoted as saying: “She is an incredible woman, she is so sharp, she is so beautiful, when I say beautiful — inside and out. That is a beautiful woman.”

Asked if he felt the Queen had liked him, he said:

“Well I don’t want to speak for her, but I can tell you I liked her. So usually that helps. But I liked her a lot,” he said.

“Just very elegant. And very beautiful. It was really something special.

“She is so sharp, so wise, so beautiful. Up close, you see she’s so beautiful. She’s a very special person.”