Under siege: UK leader tries to solve her Brexit conundrum
Associated PressLONDON — Britain’s governing Conservative Party is at war — with itself. Flamboyant former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who quit the government in July, on Friday called May’s plan “a moral and intellectual humiliation” for Britain. Johnson plans to pile pressure on May at a conference rally Tuesday — one of several meetings by Brexit enthusiasts designed to force the prime minister to “chuck Chequers.” On May’s other flank are pro-EU Conservatives who want to stay closely bound to the bloc, Britain’s biggest trading partner. Simon Allison, chairman of Conservatives for a People’s Vote, a group calling for a new referendum on Brexit, said “there are at least as many Tory voters — maybe more — who support our position as support the hard-line position.” “They make the noise, but they don’t necessarily represent the opinion,” he said. After the EU rejected her Chequers plan last week at a summit in the Austrian city of Salzburg, she blamed the bloc for the negotiating “impasse” and insisted that “no deal is better than a bad deal.” Bale said that the summit gave May some breathing room by creating a sense that she is “under attack from an external enemy — Brussels.” “There is going to be some pressure on Tory MPs to unite behind her in order to send a strong signal to the EU 27,” Bale said, referring to the 27 other members of the bloc.