May asks business leaders to back Brexit plan

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking to win the support from business leaders to back her Brexit deal with the European Union as she faces a potential leadership challenge from dissenters in her own party.

May will make a speech to the CBI business lobby group at just after 1100 GMT on Monday at its annual conference in London, looking for more industrial backing for her EU exit plan.

“We now have an intense week of negotiations ahead of us in the run-up to the special European Council on Sunday,” May will say, according to extracts from her speech.

“During that time I expect us to hammer out the full and final details of the framework that will underpin our future relationship and I am confident that we can strike a deal at the council that I can take back to the House of Commons.”

May will assure the CBI group that her plan is to provide a fair immigration system that will help young people in the UK get jobs and training: “It will no longer be the case that EU nationals, regardless of the skills or experience they have to offer, can jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi.”

Although there is still much opposition to the deal inside and outside Westminster, the deal has already been backed by many British businesses as it ensures there are some commercial ties with the EU that will be maintained after the divorce in 2019. While the agreement signed off by cabinet last week is seen as far from perfect, businesses are averse to the risks around the alternative to May’s deal, chiefly a no-deal scenario.

Carolyn Fairbairn the CBI’s director-general, in her own speech later on Monday, will attack the "extreme positions" being "allowed to dominate" in Westminster, the result of which "is a high-stakes game of risk, where the outcome could be an accidental no-deal".

"Surely, we can do better than this. The Prime Minister’s agreement is not perfect. It is a compromise. But it is hard-won progress."

Conservative party hardliners are still hoping to spark a no-confidence vote in May’s leadership as part of efforts to avoid leaving the block with a deal that is seen to subjugate the UK to Europe’s rules.

The chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, said on Sunday the 48 letters needed to trigger the vote had not yet been reached. The Sun reported that they were six letters short but could reach the threshold on Monday.

May told Sky News over the weekend that ousting her was not the answer: “This isn’t about me, it’s about what’s right for the country, and as far I’m concerned we’re not going to be distracted from this important job in this critical week of negotiations.

“A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier, and it’s not going to change the parliamentary arithmetic. What it will do is bring in a degree of uncertainty.”