Brexit: PM Says 'it's either my deal or no deal'

The PM says her Chequers plan is the viable option for a deal - Boris Johnson sees it as a "constitutional abomination"

Theresa May has told the BBC that MPs will have a choice between her proposed deal with the EU - or no deal at all.

In an interview with Panorama, she was also critical of plans by Brexiteers to resolve the Irish border issue.

But ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson claims the government's failure to resolve the border question has led to a "constitutional abomination".

A BBC-commissioned survey indicates more people across the UK think the impact of Brexit will be negative.

Speaking to Panorama, Mrs May said that if Parliament does not ratify the Chequers plan "I think that the alternative to that will be having no deal".

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Theresa May calculated that faced with a "binary choice" of the Chequers deal or no deal, Brexiteers would not have the "chutzpah to say 'no way'" and Remainers would decide that carrying on fighting the plan would be too risky.

But the risks are that the PM cannot say for certain what the final deal will look like - and some Brexiteers were already determined not to vote for it, she added.

The UK is set to leave the EU on 29 March 2019, and negotiations between the two sides are still taking place.

Mrs May set out her proposals for the key issue of cross-border trade after a Chequers summit in July, but it has been fiercely criticised by some Brexiteers who say plans for a "common rulebook" on goods would compromise the UK's sovereignty.

Mr Johnson's column in Monday's Daily Telegraph renews his attack on the plans.

He says the Chequers proposals "would mean for the first time since 1066 our leaders were deliberately acquiescing in foreign rule".

The Panorama documentary features Theresa May and husband Philip watching ITV show The Chase at Chequers

Mr Johnson says the prime minister's solution to ensure a hard border is avoided in Northern Ireland would mean the UK "must remain effectively in the customs union and large parts of the single market until Brussels says otherwise".

In her Panorama interview, Mrs May said there needed to be "friction-free movement of goods" with no customs or regulatory checks between the UK and EU on the island of Ireland, in order to avoid a hard border there.

Last week a group of Brexiteer Tory MPs said a hard border could be avoided by using "established" technology and "modifying" existing arrangements.

Mr Johnson refers to the suggestions by the European Research Group in his column, saying that "extra checks done away from the border" would prevent the need for physical checks when vehicles move between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

But Mrs May insisted that any system of checks was "still a hard border".

"You don't solve the issue of no hard border by having a hard border 20km inside Ireland," she said.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Nick Clegg told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was an "insult to the intelligence of British voters" for the prime minister to say it was a "choice between either the Chequers fudge or a cataclysmic cliff edge".

The Times has reported that the EU is "secretly preparing to accept a frictionless Irish border".

It says the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier is working on a new "protocol" text outlining a plan to use technology to minimise checks.

Mrs May has found herself embattled with some in her party, after about 50 European Research Group Tory MPs openly discussed how and when they could force her to stand down as prime minister.

On Sunday Brexit-supporting Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the Chequers plan was the right one "for now".

He told the BBC a future prime minister could alter the relationship between the UK and the EU.

Michael Gove: Theresa May's plan is the right one "for now"

With nearly six months to go until exit from the EU on 29 March 2019, a poll commissioned by BBC Radio 5 Live suggests that the UK remains split over whether Brexit will be positive for the UK.

According to a Comres survey, 50% of British adults feel the overall impact will be negative, whereas 41% think it will be positive.

When asked about the handling of Brexit negotiations, almost 79% of people polled thought that the government had handled them badly, and 63% thought the EU had handled them badly.

BBC Panorama, Inside No 10: Deal or No Deal? is on Monday 17 September at 20:30 BST on BBC One as part of a week of in-depth coverage across the BBC to mark Brexit: Six Months to Go.

BBC