Challenging his critics, May embraces the "opportunity" of Brexit

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May will inform her conservative party on Wednesday that imminent divorce from the European Union is an opportunity that opens up a promising future, assuring the faithful: "We have everything we have need to succeed. "

On the last day of his party's conference, May will target his critics, who accuse him of not adopting Brexit and yielding to the EU.

The fragile position of the leader was put under additional pressure last month after the bloc rejected parts of its so-called Checkers plan and critics asked it to rethink its strategy for Brexit, the biggest change trade and foreign policy in Great Britain. for more than 40 years.

But just six months before Britain leaves the bloc, it has already weathered the Brexit storm by getting rid of the speech of its former foreign minister, Boris Johnson, who has not hidden his ambitions of leadership.

"I passionately believe that our best days are ahead of us and that our future is full of promise," she says, according to excerpts from her speech.

"Do not let anyone tell you that we do not have what we need: we have everything we need to succeed."

These words may not help to ease the growing frustration of some Conservatives who openly declare that their party has no leadership, but with the entry into a critical phase of the Brexit negotiations, few of its rivals want to at the moment the leading position.

Less than an hour before his speech, conservative legislator James Duddridge said he had sent a letter to the party's so-called 1922 committee, calling for the resignation in May.

Forty-eight legislators would need to write such letters to elicit a vote of confidence in the leader.

"It turns out that there is a plan. This plan is Boris, "wrote Duddridge on Twitter after Boris Johnson's speech on Tuesday.

In the speech, Johnson seemed to be struggling, supporting May for the moment after launching a rallying cry for the party to return to its traditional values ​​and "chuck checkers".

And his allies wanted to present a united front.

"I am sitting in a totally united cabinet working with the Prime Minister on the proposals we have presented to the EU," said David Lidington, his real substitute.

"SORRY FOR HER"

John Smeaton, 80, a conservative Somerset member in southwestern England, said he hoped: "She's going to take out a hat rabbit to make up for the fact that in reality, she does not seem to listen to a lot of party members say.

"I'm sorry for her, but I'm not sure that your prime minister is a good place to be," he said, as he stood in front of the meeting. 39, a long queue to get to the main hall where May will speak.

She will try to respond to her party's fears of what some see as a growing threat from the main opposition Labor Party, which held an optimistic conference last week when its leaders said they were confident they could win new elections. .

Addressing Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, she will say that millions of people are "dismayed" by her left-wing politics, which includes the renationalization of rail, mail and utilities and the increase spending on infrastructure and housing.

"They want to support a decent, moderate and patriotic party. The one that puts the national interest in the foreground, "she said. "We must show everyone in this country that we are this party."

But it will be his words about Brexit that will be the most important.

In the absence of agreement with the block on divorce or future relations, the last day of the conference marks the beginning of what some officials plan to be a frantic week of diplomacy between London and Brussels while the two parties are trying to reach an agreement. end more than 40 years of partnership.

May and her team face weeks of difficult conversations with Brussels to reach an agreement, but she also faces challenges from her own party and partners in parliament, the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland .

The DUP's leader, Arlene Foster, took advantage of the conference to outline her red lines for the Brexit, repeating that she would not accept a border between Northern Ireland and the rest. from the United Kingdom. "The red line is blood red," she told the BBC.

Describing Britain's divorce as a "moment of opportunity," May promises to always act in "the national interest," a blow to Johnson, whose alternative proposals to leave the EU, she says, would tear the country apart. UK.