Theresa May: UK risks losing Brexit if compromise talks fail

[nitpicker]

1. Brexit: furious Tories will try to oust May if UK fights Euro elections

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/06/furious-tory-mps-will-bid-to-oust-may-if-uk-fights-euro-poll

Brexit: furious Tories will try to oust May if UK fights Euro elections

Toby Helm and Michael Savage

Sun 7 Apr 2019 06.32 BST

Theresa May is being warned by her mutinous MPs that they will move to oust her within weeks if the UK is forced to take part in European elections next month and extend its EU membership beyond the end of June.

Tory MPs are increasingly angry at the prospect of voters being asked to go to the polls to elect MEPs three years after the Brexit referendum, in an election they fear will be boycotted by many Conservatives and be a gift to the far right and Nigel Farage’s new Brexit party. Senior Tories said one silver lining of a long extension would be that it would allow them to move quickly to force May out, and hold a leadership election starting as soon as this month.
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Conservative MP Nigel Evans, an executive member of the 1922 committee of backbenchers said last night that, if May failed to deliver Brexit and all she could do was secure a long extension at an EU summit on Wednesday, she would face overwhelming pressure to step down. “At the moment there is focus on delivering Brexit, but if a long delay becomes a reality I believe the noises off about removing the prime minister will become a cacophony,” he said. “I and many other Conservatives would prefer leaving the EU on World Trade Organisation terms to any humiliating long extension that forces us to take part in the European elections.”

Nigel Adams, a former minister who quit last week over May’s decision to hold talks on Brexit with Jeremy Corbyn, said: “Over 170 Conservative MPs including cabinet ministers signed a letter to the PM last week urging her to ensure the UK does not take part in the European elections. Doing so will not end well.”

With discussions on Brexit between the government and Labour appearing to have stalled on Friday, there are fears among senior Conservatives that EU leaders will demand the UK remains in the EU for up to a year and takes part in European elections, unless parliament can agree a Brexit deal before 22 May.
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