Theresa May says UK can be higher off if MPs had backed her Brexit deal
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heresa May has mentioned she believes the UK would have been higher off if MPs had backed her Brexit deal.
Ms May was changed by Boris Johnson as Prime Minister in 2019 after her deal to go away the EU was rejected thrice and efforts to discover a compromise with Labour failed.
In uncommon remarks about her failure to shepherd a Brexit deal through Parliament, Ms May advised the BBC on Wednesday that it will have “given the country a better overall deal”.
Speaking on the Political Thinking podcast, the Conservative MP mentioned she tried to safe a Brexit settlement that “recognised the concerns” of those that voted Remain, but additionally was acceptable to Brexiteers.
“It wouldn’t have given either side 100% of what they wanted, but it would have given the country a better overall deal,” she mentioned.
She rejected claims that her association, which did not clear the Commons thrice and left her Government going through a no confidence movement, would have been a “hard” Brexit.
Theresa May and Boris Johnson pictured in 2017
/ PA ArchiveHer deal would have seen Britain observe EU guidelines till either side might be assured that Brexit measures wouldn’t set up a tough border in Ireland – a security mechanism often known as the “backstop”.
Speaking to LBC’s Tonight, Ms May said Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement, signed in 2020 and fully enacted in 2021, had made it “difficult for people” in Northern Ireland, because of an effective trade border it created.
“We had that period of time when it was really very difficult for Northern Ireland and difficult for people, supermarkets and so forth in Great Britain who were sending food over to Northern Ireland, all the checks and stuff that came as a result of Boris Johnson’s deal.
“So that is why I think my deal would not have been in that position and would have been better.”
Elsewhere within the BBC interview, Ms May, the UK’s second feminine prime minister, mentioned she feels sexism remains to be at play in British politics.
She mentioned there was a “focus” on what she wore and the media framed her as a “typically silly woman”.
“It is one of the challenges, sadly, for women in public life. If a man shows emotion, it is wonderful that he is showing that side of himself,” she mentioned. “If a woman shows emotion, it is weakness.”
Ms May additionally advised media shops that she would not have used Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s language of calling migrants an “invasion”.
The former prime minister raised considerations about Ms Braverman likening the arrival of asylum seekers on small boats to an “invasion on our southern coast” throughout feedback made within the Commons final yr.
The interviews are a part of the senior politician’s promotional marketing campaign for a guide she has written known as The Abuse Of Power.