Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May
British Prime Minister Theresa May will tell her Conservative Party on Wednesday the impending divorce from the European Union is an opportunity that opens up a future of promise, assuring the faithful: "We have everything we need to succeed."
On the final day of her party's conference May will take aim at her critics, who accuse her of failing to embrace Brexit and of giving in to the EU.
The leader's fragile position has been put under further pressure over the last month after the EU rejected parts of her so-called Chequers plan and critics have stepped up calls for her to rethink her strategy for Brexit, the biggest trade and foreign policy shift for more than 40 years.
But with just six months before Britain is due to leave the bloc, she has so far weathered the Brexit storm, shrugging off a barnstorming speech by her former foreign minister Boris Johnson, which did little to hide his leadership ambitions.
Not having any deal on Brexit would be better than a bad deal, French minister for European affairs Nathalie Loiseau said on Wednesday, adding she still hoped a deal could be reached with Britain regarding its exit from the European Union."No deal would be better than a bad deal," Loiseau told Radio Classique station."A good deal is still possible, but time is running out," she said.Loiseau's comments came with British Prime Minister Theresa May due to make a keynote speech to her Conservative Party on Wednesday, in which she is expected to say that Britain's impending divorce from the EU is an opportunity that opens up a future full of promise. Britain should change Brexit course, not its PM: former ministerUK's Boris Johnson: PM May's Brexit plans are an outrageYou can't leave our house and keep the key: EU official to Britain
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"I passionately believe that our best days lie ahead of us and that our future is full of promise," she will say, according to excerpts of her speech.
"Don't let anyone tell you we don't have what it takes: we have everything we need to succeed."
The words may do little to ease the growing frustration of some Conservatives who openly say their party is directionless, but with Brexit talks entering a critical phase, few of her rivals want the top job just yet.
Johnson also seemed to pull his punches on Tuesday, but after making a rallying cry for the party to return to its traditional values and to "chuck Chequers", the former London mayor remains a threat to May.
For now, her allies were keen to present a united front.
"I sit in a cabinet that is utterly united in working with the prime minister on the proposals we've put forward to the EU," said David Lidington, her effective deputy.
British Prime Minister Theresa May needs to change course on Brexit but she should remain as leader, former junior Brexit minister Steve Baker said on Tuesday."I don't really mind who is prime minister as long as we deliver a brilliant exit from the EU," he told Sky news. "This exit from the EU is going to set us for many, many generations. It needs to be done right."He added: "I should be very, very happy if Theresa May changes the policy, stays prime minister and delivers an exit from the EU.'No-deal Brexit would cost European firms up to $18 billion''Don't bully us', Britain takes new combative tone to Brexit talksAt conference, British PM May faces party divided by Brexit
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'SORRY FOR HER'
John Smeaton, 80, a Conservative member from Somerset in southwestern England, said he was hoping: "She's going to pull some rabbit out of the hat to make up for the fact that actually she doesn't appear to be listening to what an awful lot of the members of the party are saying.
"I feel sorry for her, but I'm not sure feeling sorry for your prime minister is a good place to be," he said, as he stood near the front of a long queue to get into the main hall where May will speak.
She will try to address her party's fears of what some see as a growing threat from the main opposition Labour Party, which staged an upbeat conference last week when its leaders voiced confidence of winning any new election.
Taking aim at Labour's leader, Jeremy Corbyn, she will say that millions of people are "appalled" by his leftist policies, which include renationalising rail, mail and utilities and boosting spending on infrastructure and housing.
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister Theresa May's former foreign secretary, said her Brexit plans were a constitutional outrage that would humiliate the United Kingdom by leaving it under the European Union's sway for generations to come."It would mean that UK business and industry, our entire economy, would be exposed perpetually to regulations that might have been expressly designed at the behest of foreign competitors to do them down," Johnson told the Conservative Party conference in the English city of Birmingham."It would mean that whatever the EU came up with in future ... all this nonsense we would have to implement with no ability to change or resist," he said. "That is not pragmatic, that is not a compromise - it is dangerous and unstable, politically and economically."My fellow Conservatives, this is not democracy. That is not what we voted for," he said.Johnson called on the Conservative Party to chuck out Prime Minister Theresa May's "Chequers" Brexit proposals which he said were an attempt to mislead British voters."This is the moment to chuck Chequers," Johnson said to applause and shouts of "bravo" at the Conservative Party conference."If we cheat the electorate, and Chequers is a cheat, we will escalate that sense of mistrust," he said. "If we get it wrong, if we bottle Brexit now, believe me, the people of this country will find it hard to forgive." You can't leave our house and keep the key: EU official to BritainBeyond the rhetoric, Britain, EU preparing to move forward on BrexitBrexit must not mean deregulation for banks: UK watchdog
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"They want to support a party that is decent, moderate and patriotic. One that puts the national interest first," she will say. "We must show everyone in this country that we are that party."
But it will be her words on Brexit that most will focus on.
With no agreement with the bloc over the divorce or a future relationship, the last day of the conference marks the beginning of what some officials predict will be a frenzied couple of weeks of diplomacy between London and Brussels as the two sides try to secure a deal to end more than 40 years of partnership.
May and her team face weeks of difficult conversations with Brussels to win a deal, but she also faces challenges from inside her own party and from her partners in parliament, Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party.
DUP leader Arlene Foster has used the conference to loudly set out her red lines for Brexit, repeating that she will not accept a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. "The red line is blood red," she told the BBC.
Describing Britain's divorce as a "moment of opportunity", May will promise to always act in the "national interest", a swipe at Johnson, whose alternative proposals for leaving the EU, she says, would tear the United Kingdom apart.
The "best days lie ahead of us," she will say.