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Theresa May was asked if Brexit was worth it - and avoided answering the question

Prime Minister grimaces but insists that 'We won't think again on Brexit' 

Jane Dalton
Friday 02 March 2018 21:09 GMT
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Theresa May scoffs at question of whether Brexit is worth all this trouble

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Theresa May avoided giving a “yes” or “no” answer when she was asked whether Brexit was “worth it”.

In a question-and-answer session after her major speech setting out her Brexit priorities for Brussels, a European journalist asked the Prime Minister whether it was worth the effort - meaning the divisions, arguments and worry it is giving her and her Government.

The Prime Minister first grimaced as though unsure how to reply, then gave a slightly nervous laugh, before saying: “If that's an attempt to ask whether we will think again on Brexit, the answer is no, we won't think again on Brexit.”

It was incumbent on politicians to deliver on the decision of the British people to leave the EU, she added.

In her speech at Mansion House in London, Mrs May warned EU chiefs that refusing to include financial services in a trade deal after Brexit would hurt its own economies.

She insisted that many countries with trade deals with the EU have some degree of access to the EU single market and that it was not “cherry-picking” for the UK to seek the same. “If this is cherry-picking, then so is every negotiation,” she said.

Mrs May also revealed Britain would be willing to pay to remain part of a series of European agencies relating to medicines, chemicals and aviation after the UK’s exit from the EU

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