Theresa May's deal branded 'unworkable' by senior Tory Eurosceptic as PM faces open dissent in parliament
The prime minister faces questions in the Commons about the political declaration with the EU
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has defended her blueprint for post-Brexit relations with the EU as senior Tories lined up to rubbish her "unworkable" agreement with Brussels.
The prime minister told MPs that a good Brexit deal was "within our grasp" and urged MPs to get behind her over the next 72 hours, when she will return to the Belgian capital for a summit where EU leaders will decide whether to rubberstamp the deal.
Conservative Eurosceptics expressed their dissent during a tense Commons statement, when ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson described it as "complete nonsense" and Iain Duncan-Smith, former Tory leader, said it was not "at all workable" in its current form.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson said: "We should junk forthwith the backstop, upon which the future economic partnership - according to this political declaration - is to be based, and which makes a complete nonsense of Brexit."
Ms May said her deal delivers what Mr Johnson wants, telling him: "The future relationship we have set out in the political declaration ends free movement, ends sending vast sums of money to the European Union every year and ends the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the United Kingdom, and it enables us to hold an independent trade policy and to negotiate trade deals around the whole of the world."
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also dismissed the political agreement as "26 pages of waffle," which heralds the "blindfold Brexit we all feared".
Here's the full text of Theresa May's statement on the steps of Downing Street:
"Throughout these difficult and complex negotiations with the European Union, I have had one goal in mind; to honour the vote of the British people and to deliver a good Brexit deal.
"Last week we achieved a decisive breakthrough when we agreed with the European Commission the terms for our smooth and orderly exit from the EU.
"Alongside that withdrawal agreement we published an outline political declaration setting out the framework for our future relationship.
"Last night I had a good, detailed discussion with president Juncker in which I set out what was needed in the declaration to deliver for the United Kingdom.
"We tasked our negotiating teams to continue working overnight, and as a result the text of that declaration has been agreed between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
"I have just updated the Cabinet on progress and I'll be making a statement to the House of Commons later this afternoon.
"This is the right deal for the UK. It delivers on the vote of the referendum, it brings back control of our borders, our money and our laws and it does so while protecting jobs, protecting our security and protecting the integrity of the United Kingdom.
"The agreement we have reached is between the UK and the European Commission.
"It is now up to the 27 leaders of the EU member states to examine this agreement in the days leading up to the special EU Council meeting on Sunday.
"I will be speaking to my counterparts over that time including speaking to Chancellor Kurz of Austria here in Downing Street later today.
"Last night I spoke to the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and I'm confident on Sunday that we'll be able to agree a deal that delivers for the whole UK family, including Gibraltar.
"On Saturday I will return to Brussels for a further meeting with President Juncker where we will discuss how to bring this process to a conclusion in the interest of all our people."
"The British people want this to be settled, they want a good deal that sets us on course for a brighter future.
"That deal is within our grasp and I am determined to deliver on it."
Brexiteer MPs have criticised Theresa May's political agreement, branding it a "betrayal" of the vote.
Tory MP Sheryll Murray said: "In the EU referendum people voted to taken back control of our fish.
"Yet now the Prime Minister wants to commit us to stay in the Common Fisheries Policy in all but name. She seeks to enter a new fisheries agreement on access to waters and quota shares.
“Let’s be clear. This is a betrayal of Brexit.”
Former cabinet minister Priti Patel said: “Everything the EU wanted from the negotiations has ended up in the Withdrawal Agreement – which is a legally enforceable international treaty.
“That’s why we’re going to stay in the EU customs union, remain subject to judgments of the European Court, imperil our Union and allow the EU to have a veto over when we can leave the backstop.
“Everything the UK wanted has been put in an unenforceable, meaningless declaration. And it’s cost us £39bn.
“This is a costly surrender by the UK government.”
Spain could vote against the proposed Brexit deal after failing to secure concessions over Gibraltar
We're expecting Theresa May to update the Commons on her proposed Brexit deal in around 15 minutes - stay tuned...
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Theresa May is now speaking in the Commons about the political declaration she has agreed with the EU.
She addresses head on concerns about what the deal will mean for fishing, assuring MPs that the UK will become "an independent coastal state, with control over our waters, so our fishermen get a fairer share of the fish in our waters".
She says the acesss to UK waters "is not something we will be trading off against any other priorities".
On the backstop, May says the declaration includes a clear intention to look at using technological solutions to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland.
She thanks senior Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson for their contributions on this issue.
Ending her short statement, Ms May says the next 72 hours will be "crucial" and vows to do everything possible to deliver her deal for the British people.
Responding to the prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn says the political declaration is "the worst of all worlds", giving the UK "no say over the rules that will apply and no certainty for the future".
He says the backstop would create a new regulatory border in the Irish Sea and criticises the fact that the UK will not be able to withdraw from it unilaterally.
The Labour leader says the political declaration amounts to "26 pages of waffle".
Condemning the vagaries of the document, he asks: "What on earth has the government been doing for the last two years? They've managed less than one page a month since the referendum."
Corbyn criticises what he calls May's "poisonous and divisive" suggestion earlier this week that EU citizens in the UK had been able to "jump the queue".
Returning to the political declaration, he says the lack of clarity in the document is a sign of "a government that has spent more time arguing amongst itself than negotiating for Britain".
On fisheries, he says the aspiration to establish a new fishing agreement "sounds to me like we're replacing membership of the Common Fisheries Policy with a new common fisheries policy".
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