Theresa May has appealed to EU leaders for “one more push” to get her Brexit deal through Parliament but warned of a “moment of crisis” if MPs reject it.
She said the UK had tabled “serious and detailed” proposals to address the deadlock over the Irish backstop but admitted talks had been “difficult”.
If the deal was voted down again, she said it could result in a softer Brexit or the UK not leaving “at all” – which would be a “political failure”.
“Let’s get it done,” she urged.
The EU has told the UK to come forward with new ideas to break the deadlock.
The UK is due to leave on 29 March although Parliament has yet to agree the terms of withdrawal.
MPs will vote for a second time on the withdrawal deal Mrs May has negotiated with the EU on Tuesday – after it was defeated by a historic margin in a Commons vote in January.
If they reject it again, they will get the option of either leaving without a deal or delaying the exit date.
‘We may never leave’
In a speech to a green energy firm in Lincolnshire, Mrs May said she understood the “genuine concerns” about the backstop but appealed to MPs to recognise that the deal as a whole respected the 2016 referendum result and would ensure the UK’s long-term prosperity.
“Back it and the UK will leave the EU,” she said.
“Reject it and no-one knows what will happen. We may not leave the EU for many months. We may leave without the protections a deal provides, we may never leave at all.”
It was in neither side’s interest to prolong the uncertainty by “carry on arguing” about Brexit, she said, claiming any delay beyond 29 March only risked “creating new problems”.
“It needs one more push to address the specific concerns of our Parliament,” she said. “So let’s not hold back and do what is necessary for MPs to back the deal.
“Because if MPs reject the deal, nothing is certain. It would be at a moment of crisis.”
She suggested the British people, to whom Brexit “belonged”, had “moved on” and “are ready for this to be settled”, adding: “Everyone now wants to get it done”.
But former Conservative minister Dominic Grieve, who backs a referendum to endorse the terms of Brexit, said it was “hard to see” how Parliament would agree to the current deal.
Labour says PM is ‘desperate’
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said the prime minister’s calls for the EU to help break the deadlock “sound like an act of desperation”.
He said, in light of little or no changes to the existing deal: “We will not be supporting her deal next Tuesday. We will be voting to take ‘no deal’ off the table and we will once again be putting [forward] our proposals – a custom union, market access and protection of rights in this country that have been obtained through the EU.”
The SNP said the deal on offer was “fundamentally flawed” and would damage the Scottish economy.
“Theresa May must stop passing the buck and take personal responsibility for the Brexit crisis created as a result of her own intransigence,” said its Westminster leader Ian Blackford.
What is the sticking point?
The first Commons vote, in January, saw the deal rejected by 432 votes to 202, the largest defeat for a sitting government in history.
Mrs May is seeking legally-enforceable changes to the backstop – a controversial insurance policy designed to prevent physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – but there have been few visible signs of progress.
Leading Brexiteers are looking for reassurances that the backstop – which would see the UK aligned with EU customs rules until the two sides’ future relationship is agreed or alternative arrangements worked out – will not endure indefinitely.
The European Commission said on Wednesday “no solution has been identified” to the Irish backstop.
Speaking on Friday, Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar suggested the problem lay on the UK side and Mrs May should be “offering” the EU something in return, if she expected “further compromises”.
Any extension to the Article 50 process, under which the UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March, would need the unanimous approval of the EU.
Two former prime ministers, Sir John Major and Gordon Brown, have called for a delay of a year to allow for a “public consultation” on the way ahead and to ensure an orderly exit.
