Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May
Prime Minister Theresa May hopes parliament will support her plan for Brexit, her spokesman said on Monday, adding it was the only one on the table which delivered on the will of the British people while avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland.
Earlier on Monday a former junior minister warned May's Conservative Party faces a "catastrophic split" if she persists with her so-called Chequers plan, which he said 80 or more of her lawmakers are prepared to vote against.
"Chequers is the only plan on the table which will deliver on the will of the British people while avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland. The prime minister is working hard to secure a deal and hopes all MPs (members of parliament) will be able to support it," the spokesman said.
He said her cabinet top team of ministers would meet on Thursday to discuss preparations for a possible 'no deal' Brexit.
Sterling edged higher on Monday after posting its biggest weekly drop in a month last week against a broadly stable dollar as investors cut some large short positions, but Brexit concerns checked the gains.On Monday, the pound edged a fifth of a percent higher at $1.2935 after falling 0.3 percent last week, its biggest drop since early August.On the broader market, dollar bulls pared some of their aggressive long positions before strong U.S. jobs data last week, with the main beneficiaries being sterling and the euro.Against the euro, the British currency was broadly flat at 89.40 pence.Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party faces a catastrophic split if she persists with her "Chequers" proposals, a former junior minister said. Steve Baker, an-ex Brexit minister who resigned over May's proposals for negotiating Britain's departure form the European Union and its future relationship with the bloc, said 80 or more of her lawmakers are prepared to vote against the plan.Such public criticism, just a day after her former foreign minister, Boris Johnson, cast part of the plan as "a suicide vest" wrapped around the British constitution, indicates the level of opposition within the party.The British currency had a volatile week as headlines on the progress of Brexit negotiations forced traders to switch positions rapidly in a currency market that is broadly short on the pound, based on positioning data.A Reuters poll showed that sterling could rise as much as six percent in a year, but a Brexit without any deal between London and Brussels could see it falling as much as eight percent from current levels.
Sterling edges up after biggest weekly drop in a month
British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party faces a "catastrophic split" if she persists with her so-called Chequers proposals on Brexit and 80 or more of her lawmakers are prepared to vote against the proposals, a former junior minister said.Steve Baker, a former junior Brexit minister who resigned over May's Brexit proposals, told the Press Association that he was not advocating a change of leader but warned May faced a massive problem at the Sept. 30-Oct. 3 party conference."If we come out of conference with her hoping to get Chequers through on the back of Labour votes, I think the EU negotiators would probably understand that if that were done, the Tory party would suffer the catastrophic split which thus far we have managed to avoid," Baker was quoted as saying.UK Trade unions back second Brexit referendumMay's Brexit plans like wrapping 'suicide vest' around UK, says JohnsonBritain must focus on moving ahead with May's Brexit plan: ministerIrish PM says no 'dramatic moves' to report in Brexit talks
'UK PM May's Brexit plans opposed by 80 rebels in her party'