Theresa May has laughed off calls to quit from Tory Brexiteeers accusing her of “abject surrender” over her latest delay to Brexit.
In a sign her patience has run out with her backbench critics, the prime minister ridiculed the demand from grandee Sir Bill Cash during her Commons statement on the EU summit.
Ahead of another private meeting with Jeremy Corbyn, she also turned on other Tory Eurosceptics who attacked her talks with Labour and openly mocked one party critic who had talked of her “obstinacy”.
And in a further sign of a serious breakdown in relations with her DUP partners, May angrily rounded on one of its MPs for suggesting she had won no concessions from Brussels in the past three years.
The PM came under repeated fire from a clutch of Tory Brexiteers furious at the fact that the UK’s exit from the EU could be postponed to October 31.
In a dramatic moment, Cash said her “abject surrender” at the EU summit was the final straw after she had “broken promises 100 times” about the Exit Day.
“Does she accept that this withdrawal agreement undermines our democracy, the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, the right to govern ourselves, control over our laws, and undermines our national interest?”
To gasps in the Commons chamber, he added: “Will she resign?”
May simply laughed off the resignation call and hit back: “I think you know the answer to that.”
The PM defended her conduct at the EU summit, but said that all MPs should use the Commons Easter recess to “reflect on the decisions that will have to be made swiftly on our return”.
In a clue to a possible way forward, she also suggested that she would ‘soon’ publish the long-awaited Withdrawal Agreement Bill to “provide a useful forum” for any compromise with Labour on future UK-EU trade relations.
May and Corbyn met briefly in her Commons office on Thursday afternoon, after officials on both sides agreed to new talks.
HuffPost UK understands the meeting lasted 10 minutes, but was long enough to approve the next steps, with their teams due to meet on Friday.
“Both sides agreed to continue talks in an effort to make substantive progress towards finding a compromise plan,” a spokesman said.
But during May’s two-hour statement a swath of Tory Brexiteers kept up the attack on her tactics.
European Research Group Vice Chairman Steve Baker asked whether she would prefer Labour support to that of the DUP and backbencher Julia Lopez denounced “the deeply flawed withdrawal agreement” and her “narrow strategy”.
Former Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris said some in No.10 had effectively decided to “take whatever is given her” by the EU.
May dismissed the criticism and when Brexiteer Mark Francois told her that “perseverance is a virtue, but sheer obstinacy is not”, he was meet with jeers from MPs loyal to the PM.
One colleague asked Francois, who has three times voted against May’s deal “Will you change your vote, Mark?”
The DUP’s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds told May to “learn the lessons” that the threat of no-deal had forced Brussels into compromise.
DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said the EU had repeatedly got concessions from London on the exit bill, the ‘backstop’ and on the length of the delay to Brexit.
May angrily hit back that she could “give plenty of examples”, including the fact that Brussels had originally demanded £100bn but would only get £39bn in a ‘divorce’ bill.
Peter Bone reminded her she had promised not to delay Brexit 108 times and then had pledged not to remain as PM beyond June 30.
But the PM again defended her record and turned on the backbench critic: “This House and I can honour that commitment by voting for a deal that enables us to leave before the 30th June.”
Talks between ministers and Labour are set to continue on Friday, after May and Corbyn’s latest discussion.
“We have stressed the urgency because there is an opportunity to avoid European parliamentary elections and to bring a resolution so that businesses and people have greater certainty,” a No.10 spokesman said.
“Bluntly, we won’t continue to talk for the sake of it.”