May: UK will not get better offer if MPs vote down draft Brexit withdrawal agreement

Theresa May has said the European Union will not “give us a better deal” if MPs vote down the draft withdrawal agreement she has negotiated.

Asked what happens if MPs reject the agreement, she said “I think we end up back a square one” with “more uncertainty and more division”.

“If we were to go back to the EU they’re not going to come to us and give us a better deal,” she told a member of the public on a BBC radio phone-in.

Earlier today, former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, who quit in protest over the agreement last week, said he believed parliament would vote down the deal next month.

When asked why she had spoken of “no Brexit” as well as “no deal” in recent weeks, and whether no Brexit was an option, the PM said: “It’s not one of my options.”

“There are some MPs in the House of Commons who want to frustrate Brexit,” she said, but she was “entirely focused” on getting the deal through.

On the £39bn divorce bill, a major sticking point among MPs across parties, she admitted if the UK entered into a further implementation period after the agreed 21 months, the EU “would ask for more financial contributions”.

But crucially, she added, once the UK has left the EU “we’ll no longer be obliged to send vast amounts of money” every year.

May took to the radio today to mark the start of a push to “explain” the merits of the deal to the public, something she said she also will tour the country to do in the coming weeks.

She heads to Brussels tomorrow ahead of a Sunday summit in which the government hopes the EU27 countries will accept the draft agreement.

But Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeatedly said his country will reject the draft Brexit deal unless it makes clear that talks regarding the status of Gibraltar will be considered separately.

May said today: “We’ve been working with the government of Gibraltar and with the government of Spain to put in some measures that relate to Gibraltar.”