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British Prime Minister Theresa May making a speech in central London on her latest Brexit plans. Kirsty Wigglesworth via PA Images

New Brexit plan: May loses support as she gives MPs a shot at second referendum

“The biggest problem with Britain today is its politics,” May said today.

LAST UPDATE | 21 May 2019

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Theresa May has revealed the details of her new Brexit plan, calling it a “significant” and “serious” offer – but some MPs aren’t happy. 

As part of her new Brexit strategy, May said that although she didn’t think there should be a second referendum, that MPs will get a vote on whether the Brexit deal should be put to the people in a vote.

The statement was given this afternoon, following the collapse of talks with the Labour party on Friday. For weeks, May’s Cabinet and Labour have tried to find a Brexit both sides want in order to get some type of Brexit deal through the UK parliament. 

The current draft Brexit deal, negotiated between Theresa May’s officials and the EU, has been rejected by MPs three times in three months. Rebel Tories have voiced opposition to the Northern Ireland backstop, which would leave the region under some EU rules in order to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

What was promised

May said that although it was “not possible to replace backstop in Withdrawal Agreement”, she said the government would be placed under “a legal obligation to seek to conclude alternative arrangements” to the Irish border issue by December 2020.

She said that she had also listened to unionist concerns about the backstop, and said that should backstop come into force, the British government “will ensure that Great Britain will stay aligned with Northern Ireland”.

We will prohibit the proposal that a future Government could split Northern Ireland off from the UK’s customs territory.

The Stormont Assembly would also have to get cross-community agreement “for new regulations which are added to the backstop”.

May said that these were “significant further changes to protect integrity of the UK”, and was a “bespoke solution that answers all parts of community in Northern Ireland”.

Those are two of ten points in May’s Brexit plan: the rest include seeking “as close to frictionless trade in goods with the EU as possible while outside the single market and ending free movement”.

There would also be a “custom compromise” from the Government for MPs to decide on to break the deadlock, and a vote for MPs on whether the deal should be subject to a referendum.

May also promised to enshrine workers’ rights in a new bill that would retain the rights on par with EU rules, and also said a new independent environment watchdog would be set up.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill will be published in the next few days, she added.

Reaction

This is expected to be May’s final attempt to break the Brexit impasse before she has to set out a timeline for her departure and make way for a new Tory leader.

Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has already said he would go for the leadership. Earlier today, Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said he would not be putting his name forward, but would back Johnson in a leadership contest.

In response to May’s offer today, Rees-Mogg said a no-deal Brexit was his preferred option:

“The Prime Minister’s latest proposals are worse than before and would leave us bound deeply in to the EU. It is time to leave on WTO terms.”

Johnson has this evening tweeted that he would not support the new version of the deal, having voted for it the last time it was put to parliament. 

“The Bill is directly against our manifesto – and I will not vote for it. We can and must do better – and deliver what the people voted for,” he said, rejecting the idea of any customs union or second referendum.

Echoing these comments, former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab dismissed May’s latest plan. 

“I listened carefully to the PM’s speech on the govt’s revised terms of Brexit,” Raab tweeted. 

“I cannot support legislation that would be the vehicle for a second referendum or Customs Unions. Either option would frustrate rather than deliver Brexit – and make out clear manifesto promises,” he said. 

A number of other MPs are similarly unimpressed:

The DUP has also expressed dissatisfaction with the proposals.

“We will examine the legislation closely when the bill is finally published but the fundamental flaws of the draft Withdrawal Agreement treaty itself remain unchanged,” DUP parliamentary leader Nigel Dodds said.

The people will have their opportunity on Thursday [when the European elections are being held in the UK] to tell the government, the European Commission and those in other member states that we must have a Brexit in which all of the UK leaves the EU together.

Other key quotes from May

Although she dodged questions about her leadership and when she would depart, May revealed how difficult the process has been:

I knew delivering Brexit would not be simple or straightforward.

She said that transferring the simplicity of ballot paper to complexity of relationship of 27 nations was “harder than anticipated”.

She said that she’s tried to compromise, “sought changes MPs demanded, offered to leave the job I love earlier than I would have liked”, but still hasn’t managed to deliver Brexit.

“If just 30 MPs had voted differently we would be leaving the EU,” she said, referring to the last vote, where her Brexit deal was defeated by 58 votes.

May said today:

The world is changing fast, [and we have all we need to take advantage of opportunities] … but we will not do so if our country is stuck talking about Brexit. The biggest problem with Britain today is its politics. 
With reporting by Hayley Halpin

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    Mute Rob Munnelly
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:08 PM

    This might be the poorest informed article I’ve read on an Apple release in a while.

    1) Doubling the ram is something just “does” in its phones, almost year on year.

    2) 2GB of ram wasn’t a surprise, it was widely speculated and assumed that would be the case.

    3) Extra ram, on iOS, doesn’t really affect how apps run in the background; it allows larger apps to run more processes in the foreground. That means better graphics in a game because it can load more triangles / drawing processes etc.

    4) Cramming 4gb of ram into something with a mobile chip doesn’t make it as powerful as a laptop, it just has as much ram as one. A lot of these things still run on really crappy processors, and Android is a one-for-all operating system – it’s not built to get the most out of any 1 combination of processor make / speed / model, combined with a ram / speed / make / model. So you can’t really compare them based on the headline number of a single part of it.

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:16 PM

    Apple also launched it’s first Android APP called ‘Move to iOS’ yesterday on Google Play as part of the iOS 9 launch…. It got blasted with over 8 thousand 1 star reviews (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.movetoios) Most of the reviews are just rants against Apple.

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    Mute John Lawless
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:24 PM

    I thought Apple Music was the first Apple app released on Android?

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:15 PM

    John… Aside from Beats Music for Android, which Apple acquired, this is the company’s first Android APP. Apple didn’t announce ‘Move to iOS’ at WWDC 2015. Instead, the APP was quietly listed on Apple’s What’s new in iOS page the same day.

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    Mute john
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:22 PM

    My vodafone smart ultra 6 has 2gb Ram and lots of other stuff the iphone 6s has and it only cost me €170!! The only thing it doesnt have is the apple logo on the back :( I’ll just have to live with not being cool!

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    Mute Brendan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:54 PM

    Funny enough when I see someone flashing the apple logo on their phone or laptop/tablet I just think knob!!!

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    Mute Paul Lanigan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 11:29 PM

    boulder on your shoulder Brendan

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    Mute Carlin Ite
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    Sep 18th 2015, 7:52 AM

    I have a MacBook Pro. I will never use a windows laptop again.

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    Mute Jonny Lennon
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:04 PM

    The Journal.. Sponsored by Apple!!!

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    Mute Anon Ymous
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    Sep 18th 2015, 12:46 AM

    I updated my iPhone 5 to iOS9 today. Purely by chance I discovered that, with this new update, it automatically starts your 3 month free trial with Apple Music and – in the small print – after the 3 month trial is up, Apple will start charging your account. I wouldn’t have known this only a friend and I were chatting about Apple Music this evening and I had a quick look at it. I have never signed up for the free trial so am really Annoyed by it.

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    Mute Sean 
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    Sep 18th 2015, 3:29 PM

    Well it hasn’t opted me in on any of my devices not any of my friends I have checked with so you must just be unlucky

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    Mute Jim Rodgers
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    Sep 19th 2015, 12:57 PM

    Surely you seen this nugget of information in the 400 pages of terms and conditions that you read before agreeing to iOS9 ;-)

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    Mute Seamus McSpud
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:30 PM

    During testing of iOS9 it was discovered that there is an issue for users who use custom Access Point Names (APN) to access their corporate networks.
    This could affect some customers using Vodafone Office Access, Vodafone Data Control or customers who have custom-built APNs.
    The impact it may have is that if a user upgrades to iOS9 they may lose complete data connectivity.

    As a precaution we strongly recommend that any users who use custom APNs, Vodafone Office Access or Vodafone Data Control do not upgrade to iOS9, until further notice. We understand that Apple are working on a fix.

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