Theresa May statement: 'I expect respect from the EU' - as it happened

21 Sept 201809.23 EDT

Snap analysis: Theresa May's statement

Jessica Elgot

The prime minister made clear she is bruised by her treatment in Salzburg. Her comments that she has treated the EU with respect and expects similar treatment were particularly pointed.

Her guarantee to EU citizens that their rights will be protected is a officially new development, although one that has long been a tacit understanding.

Nowhere in the speech did the prime minister mention the word “Chequers” - a sign the speech is intended for domestic consumption and much of it was explained in very plain language. It is also a sign that the word now has toxic connotations.

However, there’s relatively little that has changed on substance. May defended her plan for a common rulebook on goods and a facilitated customs arrangement as the only path to respecting the referendum result and avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland.

Those were the two issues that she said there was still considerable distance between the two parties.

Neither of the two options on the table from the EU could ever be acceptable, she said. A Norway-style arrangement where the UK remained in the single market would not respect the referendum result, she said, because it would mean continued free movement and leave the UK as a “rule taker.”

May said a Canada-style FTA, the other option on offer, would only be offered if Northern Ireland remained in the customs union and parts of the single market, something that risked a border down the Irish sea and the break up of the UK.

She ended with a good faith offer both to people in Northern Ireland and EU citizens, saying she would protect their rights. But she issued a veiled warning to EU leaders that there was no prospect of the UK reversing its decision, or calling another referendum.

May says she wants to clarify several issues. She says she wants to be clear that the rights of EU citizens will be protected in the event of no deal.

She says to the people of Northern Ireland that they will do everything to prevent a hard border with the Irish republic.

She also says the EU referendum was the biggest democratic exercise in the country’s history and said for over two years she has worked “day and night” and worked to “bring people with me.”

The EU should be clear, I will not overturn the result of the referendum nor will I break up my country. We need serious engagement in resolving the two big problems in the negotiations and we stand ready.

May says that both options would be “a bad deal... I have always said no deal is better than a bad deal.”

She says she has treated the EU “with nothing but respect” and says that she expects the same.

“We now need to hear from the EU what the real alternative is and we can discuss them.”

May says one option is the EEA - which means abiding by all EU rules, “uncontrolled immigration from the EU” and no trade deal with other countries. She says it would “make a mockery” of the EU referendum result.

She says the second option was a basic free trade agreement for Britain and Northern Ireland remaining in the customs union, permanently separated from the rest of the UK.

She says a customs border would not respect that Northern Ireland is “an integral part of the United Kingdom... it something I will never agree to.”

The prime minister is speaking now in Downing Street. She says both sides want a deal but there are two areas where the UK and the EU are “a long way apart.”

She says the EU is still only offering two options on the future economic relationship.

The BBC is reporting that May will restate that she is committed to the Chequers plan for the Brexit negotiations. She is likely to make an appeal to EU leaders to engage on the details. Here’s the BBC’s story.

Plus the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg has an update on the power situation in Number 10 (I can’t quite believe I’m typing that).

The statement is supposed to be at 13.45 - but Sky News’ political news editor reveals there are a few technical problems.

Earlier the Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab suggested the UK would hold firm on the Chequers proposal.

He said it was now for the EU to engage seriously, accusing leaders of putting “the handbrake” on negotiations.

We’ve been rebuffed on our plans without any coherent explanation as to why, there’s these sort of rather dogmatic pleas to the single market unity but our plans were very carefully crafted around that.”

We’re going to hold our nerve, stay calm and keep negotiating in good faith.

We’ve revved up the motor of these negotiations, I’ve been out there a lot more frequently to get motoring, to make progress and the EU have just yanked up the handbrake and for the negotiations to go forward they’re going to have to take their hand off the handbrake.

Raab also criticised Tusk for his social media post, saying it “didn’t feel like very statesman-like behaviour.”

There’s a big question mark about whether the EU is really serious about the substance of these negotiations.

Downing Street has insisted the statement will be an update on the negotiations. It is highly unlikely that May is announcing her departure or announcing a general election, Number 10 sources have already categorically denied this.

The real interest will be whether the prime minister uses the statement to double-down on her Chequers plan or hint that there is longer a no path for the offer, which involves a free trade area for goods, governed by a common UK-EU rulebook. The former is far more likely than the latter.

We’re also likely to see some red meat thrown to the hard-line Brexiters who will want to see the prime minister hit back at some of the humiliating language used by EU leaders in Salzburg, including being openly mocked by Donald Tusk on his Instagram.

Many of her MPs, and some of her cabinet, would prefer to see her dump Chequers and seek a Canada-style free trade agreement, but the problems that would cause for the future of the Northern Irish border seem near insurmountable.

Theresa May will give an unplanned update on the state of the ongoing Brexit negotiations in the wake of the unexpectedly sharp rejection of her Chequers plans by EU leaders in Salzburg.

We’re expecting it to be a statement to cameras at 10 Downing Street. Inevitably, the Westminster rumour mill is swirling but at the moment all indications are that she will say the government intends to press ahead with its current offer and continue negotiations.

European Council President Donald Tusk said her proposal for a common rulebook for goods and agri-foods risked the integrity of the EU single market and French president Emmanuel Macron also attacked the proposal.

Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel have also said significantly more progress is needed by the European Council summit on October 18 if agreement on the UK’s withdrawal deal is to be reached.