Theresa May: I underestimated MPs' entrenched positions on Brexit

Jacob Jarvis14 July 2019
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Theresa May has admitted she underestimated the "entrenched positions" in Parliament over Brexit.

Ahead of her departure from Number 10 in less than two weeks, Mrs May said she would have feelings of disappointment about her tenure as PM.

She conceded that she could have talked to more colleagues to get her withdrawal deal through the Commons, and said if the future relationship had been negotiated alongside there would not have been the same issue with the Irish backstop.

In an interview with the BBC ahead of her departure from Downing Street in less than two weeks, Mrs May was asked how she thought she would feel when she walks out of the door of Number 10 as PM for the last time.

BBC

On Britain's departure from the EU, she admitted she could have spoken to people more often to understand the feelings of politicians more clearly.

"On the one hand some people who'd always campaigned for Brexit but didn't vote for the deal because they had a particular vision of Brexit and they were sticking firmly to that vision," she said in an interview with the BBC.

Theresa May was unable to get the Commons behind her Brexit deal
House of Commons/PA Wire

"On the other side people who said they didn't want to leave with no deal but weren't prepared to vote for a deal in order to make sure that what they wanted happened.

"So I think that I underestimated the unwillingness of parts some people in Parliament to compromise."

Theresa May said she had some happy memories with her husband Philip at Number 10
Getty Images

Mrs May insisted she had negotiated a "good deal", despite it being voted down multiple times by Parliament, and said: "One could always look back and say 'if I'd sat down and talked to people more often'."

She added that one of the issues with the negotiations was the sequencing, which meant the divorce was talked about before the future relationship.

Mrs May said there was a "general feeling", including for some in Europe, that had the whole package been negotiated at the same time "we wouldn't have the same issue over the backstop".

"We'd have been looking at exactly what the future was as well as what the divorce was, what the break up was," she said.

She also expressed her regret at "running a campaign that wasn't really me" in the run up to the 2017 general election, though said she did not regret calling the poll.

Theresa May with Doanld Trump and Jeremy Hunt on the US President's recent state visit
AFP/Getty Images

Mrs May was also asked what her feelings would be when she leaves Downing Street.

She said: "I think it'll be a mixture of pride at having done the job. But also a degree of disappointment because there was more that I wanted to do.

"I think we have achieved a lot over the last three years but whenever you come to the end of a premiership I think everybody will always feel that there is more that they wanted to do."

Either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt will replace Theresa May
Henry Nicholls/Reuters

The Prime Minister, who will stand down on July 24, said she would leave with "happy memories" and praised her husband Philip's support.

"I will leave with happy memories. It's not - I felt at home here as Prime Minister but it's not obviously the home that Philip and I built up together," she said.

"It is as I've said very much a place of work but there are happy memories because it is an immense privilege to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, it's a huge honour it has a huge responsibility but I'm immensely proud to have been able to do it for three years."

Mrs May, who has been given the nickname Maybot throughout her premiership, also told the BBC she does not recognise herself in some of the descriptions people give of her.

"Nobody likes to have descriptions of them that they don't think are right but that's what happens in politics. It doesn't only happen to prime ministers," she said.

"Throughout a political life you have to be prepared for the fact that people will portray you in ways that you might not agree with."

Additional reporting by PA.

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