April 7 (UPI) — British Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that she believes “compromise on both sides” could deliver a Brexit solution amid a stalemate in cross-party talks on the matter.
In a video statement posted to Twitter Sunday, May said that she can’t see the deal she negotiated to leave the European Union, which has been rejected by Members of Parliament three times being accepted, but she still had hope that the two sides might reach a deal before Britain is set to leave the bloc on Friday.
“Can we find a way through this that ensures that we can get a good deal and a deal agreed through parliament?” May said. “It’ll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us.”
May added that she had to reach across the parliamentary aisle to reach a compromise with Labor party MPs after she was faced with the “stark choice”of leaving the EU with a deal or not leaving at all.
“We have no choice but to reach out across the House of Commons,” May said. “The referendum was not fought along party lines and people I speak to on the doorstep tell me they expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it.”
She added that getting a majority of MPs to approve a Brexit deal is the only way to ensure Britain leaves the EU.
“The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all,” May said.
Shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, a member of the Labor delegation, said the mood of the talks with May had been “quite a positive and hopeful one,” but little was actually achieved.
“The sad thing is at the moment we haven’t seen, overall, any real changes to the deal, but we’re hopeful that will change in coming days and we are willing to continue the talks as we know the government are,” she said. “But we are currently waiting for the government to come back to us now to state whether they are prepared to move on any of their red lines.”
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said it was unlikely that May would agree to some Labor demands such as a full customs union, adding it is her expectation that the prime minister will only seek “to agree on things that still constitute Brexit.”
Leadsom added that leaving the EU without a deal, would not be “nearly as grim as many would advocate.”
“The civil service have done an amazing job of ensuring that we minimize the problems,” she said. “I’m not an advocate for no deal, but it would not be nearly as bad as many like to think it would be.”
