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Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday vowed to press ahead with her Brexit plan on the basis of a draft agreement between London and Brussels, despite a political crisis looming large over the hard-won deal, including ministerial resignations within hours earlier in the day. The prime minister has been fighting in the parliament and at press conference, not to mention her efforts behind the scenes, to save the Tuesday agreement which, if ratified by British and European Union parliaments, sets terms on Britain's departure from the European Union on March 29, 2019. The massive resignations came as May was giving a fighting statement in the parliament in a bid to rally support to her deal.Her series of public remarks were intended to send a message: The draft deal on the table is the only best choice for Britain to leave the trading bloc, and she is the most suitable leader to deliver the Brexit as mandated by the 2016 referendum. "The choice is clear. We can choose to leave with no deal," she told the lower parliament house. "We can risk no Brexit at all. Or we can choose to unite and support the best deal that can be negotiated: This deal." Hours later, she told the news conference in her Downing Street residence that "the course I have set out is the right one." Furthermore, she added: "I believe with every fibre of my being -- the approach is right." "I am going to do my job," said May, who repeated in public that she will work very hard to deliver Brexit, ruling out her own possible resignation. However, her statements were not effective at this moment in helping her win over those who publicly opposed her Brexit plan, including former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Words even began to spread in the London political and media circles that Johnson was among several hopefuls within her Conservative Party to succeed her in coming weeks, according to the media reports here. Hostile attitude has been on the rise among government and opposition parliament members as time went by after her public speeches, raising the risk that the deal would be killed in the parliament. A new round of political fighting kicked off on Tuesday at the news that Britain and the European Union just reached the draft agreement. And the political crisis will be further deepened with the more powerful push by the prime minister to go ahead with her Brexit plan despite strong opposition inside her own political party and parliament. To deliver Brexit in the light of her plan, the prime minister needs to get green lights from both the British parliament and the remaining 27 European Union member states. Therefore, a question crops up at this juncture: can the prime minister be still lucky enough to survive the coming crises before the Brexit deadline? May survived the political crisis one after another since she came to office in 2016, including the loss of two Brexit secretaries. Earlier Thursday, British Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and British Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey resigned to withdraw their support for the draft agreement. The resignation of Raab, a rising star who was brought in to keep Tory Brexiteers on board, was seen as the biggest blow to the prime minister. Worse still, the massive resignations were followed by eurosceptics in May's Conservative Party, who, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, sought a non-confidence vote in the prime minister. The draft deal was "worse than anticipated," Rees-Mogg said, adding that he had formally requested the non-confidence vote in May. |
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