PM Theresa May has been ridiculed on social media for insisting she wanted Brexit done and dusted before Christmas, even though she pulled the vote on her deal in December. SNP’s leader in Westminster branded her a “liar.”
May was responding to accusations made by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament that she was "running down the clock" in an attempt to blackmail MPs into voting for her Brexit deal.
"No I wanted to have this sorted before Christmas,” May insisted. “I brought a deal back [from Brussels] before Christmas."
The PM's claim was met with howls of derision from the opposition benches in the house of commons and from Twitter.
The prime minister was issuing an update to her Brexit negotiations with the EU. She told MPs that she would seek legally-binding changes to the EU Withdrawal Agreement to get the necessary changes to the contentious Irish backstop - something which the EU have publicly ruled out, thus far.
During heated exchanges in the Commons between May and opposition MPs, the SNP’s leader in Westminster Ian Blackford was forced to apologise after allegedly calling the PM a “liar.” Blackford’s outburst related to the PM’s claims that her government had published economic assessments of its Brexit proposal.
Labour’s Corbyn caused laughter from his benches after revealing that his copy of May’s Brexit statement had only arrived minutes before the proceedings. He suggested that maybe the maligned Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, famous for issuing a ferry contract to a company with no ships, had been entrusted to deliver it to him.
In a significant move, May announced that if it appeared that there was going to be "insufficient time" to pass legislation on Brexit, she would amend the bill to enable her to fast-track it through Parliament.
On Thursday the UK government will table a motion on the PM’s deal that would effectively give May more time to negotiate with Brussels to finalise an agreement. May says she will make a statement to Parliament on February 26 if a deal between the UK and EU has not been secured. Votes and tabled amendments on her Brexit deal will take place the following day.
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