UK’s defiant May tells critics it’s her Brexit deal or chaos

Associated Press

LONDON

Prime Minister Theresa May defied mounting calls to quit or change course Thursday over Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, warning that abandoning her Brexit plan would plunge the country into “deep and grave uncertainty.”

Britain’s long-simmering divisions over its future in the EU erupted into turmoil just a day after the government agreed to a divorce deal with the bloc. Two Cabinet ministers resigned and some lawmakers from May’s own party called for her to be replaced. The crisis threatened to destroy the Brexit agreement, unseat the prime minister and send the U.K. hurtling toward the EU exit without a plan.

In an evening news conference aimed at regaining some control, May said she believed “with every fiber of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people.”

The hard-won agreement with the EU has infuriated pro-Brexit members of May’s divided Conservative Party. They say the agreement, which calls for close trade ties between the U.K. and the bloc, would leave Britain a vassal state, bound to EU rules it has no say in making.