‘We voted for FREEDOM!’ IDS tells Theresa May to get tough on EU who want UK to ‘REPENT’

THERESA May should walk away from the negotiating table if she does not secure a good Brexit deal by the time of the EU summit, according to Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith.

The Tory MP urged the Prime Minister to ignore Remainers, after she was forced to make concessions to rebel politicians who demanded a ‘meaningful vote’ on the Brexit deal.

Led by Dominic Grieve, rebel MPs want Parliament to have the power to send Theresa May back to the negotiating table if they reject her Brexit deal.

After an amendment was added in by the House of Lords, Theresa May was forced to offer concessions to rebel MPs at the eleventh hour to stop them voting down the EU Withdrawal Bill – which could block Brexit.

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IDS has said May must get tougher on the EU

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Dominic Grieve backed down against his proposal in the end

Mr Duncan Smith said the EU will only come to the table if there is a threat of a no deal and Mrs May is right to say that “no deal is better than a bad deal”.

The threat of a no deal is the “ultimate weapon” that makes Brussels come to the table, the eurosceptic MP said.

Writing in The Sun, Mr Duncan Smith said: “The British people voted for freedom, and Parliament must remember that nothing should stop the Government delivering on that vote”.

The Tory MP said
 Theresa May had been too soft on the EU, but Brussels has been behaving like an “opponent who wishes to impose their will and force the UK to repent what they believe is the folly of Brexit.”

He said: “Too often it seems as though it is the UK which negotiates as a supplicant — despite the reality that, as the EU’s largest trade partner and the fifth largest economy in the world, with the world’s fourth most potent defence forces, the UK is deserving of much more respect from the EU.”

Following hours of debate on Tuesday, MPs voted by 324 to 298 to reject a House of Lords amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill which would have given MPs the ability to tell the PM to return and renegotiate the Brexit deal.

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Anti-Brexit protesters outside parliament when MPs were discussing the EU bill

It is now a critical time in the Brexit negotiations as Theresa May attempts to keep both sides of her divided cabinet happy. She is due to reveal her compromise plan before the week is through, and it is not known how she will keep both Brexiteers and Remainers in her party appeased.

It is feared the PM may have given the EU the upper-hand in negotiations.

Mr Duncan Smith said the EU would be happy with the peers in the House of Lords who have demanded 15 amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill, but he claimed the peers had set out to “humiliate” the Government and were just wanting to reverse the result of the referendum.

He said Mr Grieve’s amendment could mean Parliament could block Brexit would be a “betrayal of British voters”, according to Mr Duncan-Smith.

Mr Grieve withdrew his own proposals giving MPs more power to vote on a final deal and did eventually vote with the Government.

In the article, IDS also lashed out at Jeremy Corbyn for voting against the Government on the EU Withdrawal Bill “for his own political ends”.

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