(MENAFN- Gulf Times) British Prime Minister Theresa May scored a key success in clinching a Brexit agreement with Brussels yesterday but faced an immediate backlash from hardliners at home for making compromises.
'It's not Brexit, Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party and a major driving force behind last year's Brexit referendum, told BBC radio.
'A deal in Brussels is good news for Mrs May as we can now move on to the next stage of humiliation, he said on Twitter.
Campaign group Leave.EU issued a scathing reaction to yesterday's deal, saying that 'our lily-livered politicians have sold the country down the river.
It called the agreement a 'complete capitulation.
Boxed in by rival pro-Brexit and pro-EU factions within her own Conservative party, May has been at risk of being toppled ever since a general election in June in which she lost her majority.
The Sun newspaper earlier this week even reported a plot to oust her before the month-end and install her Brexit Secretary David Davis as prime minister.
While that threat may have receded for now, it has not gone away and May faces an uphill struggle in shoring up parliamentary support for tortuous upcoming negotiations on the future UK-EU partnership.
But Brexit advocates in her own cabinet, including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, lined up to support the agreement in a choreographed show of unity.
'Congratulations to PM for her determination in getting today's deal, Johnson wrote on Twitter.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove, a top Brexit campaigner who ran against May in a party leadership race last year, said the preliminary agreement was a 'significant personal, political achievement.
Gove and Johnson have both been critical of May's approach to Brexit negotiations in the past.
Other Conservative eurosceptics responded more cautiously, underlining the negotiating maxim that 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.
The most hardline Conservative MPs stayed silent.
Many from constituencies that voted strongly in favour of Brexit in last year's referendum will be wary of any perception of bowing to Brussels.
Anand Menon, Professor of European politics at King's College in London, said there would be 'massive problems in negotiations ahead that could once again highlight divisions in the Conservatives.
On her chances of political survival, he predicted her vulnerability would continue and the government would still be prone to 'serial blindsiding.
'This is a prime minister who only ever looks to next Friday because that's how she's forced to govern.
At a lunch in the British parliament on Thursday, former finance minister George Osborne, who is fiercely opposed to May, told reporters there was a 'consensus in the party that she should go.
Conservative party moderates and EU backers gave their endorsement to the deal.
Conservative MP Anna Soubry, a leading pro-EU advocate who has threatened to rebel against the government on key upcoming votes, gave the deal a 'warm welcome and hoped it would heal the 'dreadful Brexit divide.
Fellow rebel Conservative MP Heidi Allen said: 'Flexibility and putting sound, mutually beneficial economics first will be essential on both sides.
But the reactions in the politically-influential right-wing press were also less than glowing.
Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts wrote: 'The more the Eurocrats praise Mrs May's ‘determination', the more uneasy we should feel.
MENAFN0812201700670000ID1096209888
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.