Updated 12:40
The UK Prime Minister has insisted that Britain is not afraid to leave the EU without a deal if necessary.
In her speech to her party conference today Theresa May insisted “no one wants a good deal more than me but that has never meant getting a deal at any cost.”
She admitted that a no deal situation would introduce “tariffs and costly checks” at the UK border but claimed the “resilience and ingenuity of the British people would see us through.”
“Some people ask me to rule out ‘no deal,’” she said.
“But if I did that, I would weaken our negotiation position and have to agree to whatever the EU offers.
“At the moment that would mean accepting one of two things.
"Either a deal that keeps us in the EU in all but name - keeps free movement, keeps vast annual payments and stops us signing trade deals with other countries.
"Or a deal that carves off Northern Ireland - a part of this country - effectively leaving it in the EU Customs Union.
“So let us send a clear message from this hall today - we will never accept either of those choices.”
Chequers
She went on to claim that her strategy, agreed by the British Cabinet at her ‘Chequers’ country estate would protect the union of Britain and Northern Ireland, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the UK and ensure there will be no return to a hard border in Ireland.
“We will not betray the result of the Referendum and we will never break up our country,” she said.
Mrs May is facing criticism at home and abroad over her strategy for the UKs exit from the EU, but claims the country is now facing a "moment of opportunity."
Finishing out her speech she said: "I passionately believe that our best days lie ahead of us and that our future is full of promise.
"Don't let anyone tell you we don't have what it takes: we have everything we need to succeed."
DUP support
It comes after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - which is propping up Mrs May’s minority Government - threatened to pull the plug if it did not get its way on the Irish border backstop.
The party’s leader in the House of Commons Nigel Dodds warned that it was “not bluffing” when it said it would not accept new regulatory differences between the North and Britain.
He said his party would vote against the UK Government if Mrs May returned from Brussels with a deal it didn’t like.
“We will vote against it. We will vote for our red lines,” he told the Guardian.
Good Friday Agreement
Earlier, party leader Arlene Foster said the confidence and supply arrangement with the Conservatives was “party-to-party” and was not reliant on Theresa May remaining as leader.
She also suggested the Good Friday Agreement was ‘not sacrosanct’ and could be altered to accommodate any Brexit deal.
The comments were widely condemned – with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warning that the Irish peace deal was “not up for negotiation” and could only be altered with the agreement of both the British and Irish Governments as well as the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.
Backstop
The UK Government has already agreed to sign up to a legally binding backstop solution that ensures there will be no return to a hard border in Ireland regardless of what happens with Brexit.
Theresa May has claimed the EUs vision for how this can be achieved – by keeping the North within the Customs Union after Britain leaves unless and until a new free trade arrangement is in place – would erect a border in the Irish Sea.
She has said that no UK Prime Minister would agree to the plan – claiming that it would undermine the Constitutional integrity of the UK.
Westminster has yet to bring forward a viable alternative.
Mrs May’s speech follows that of her former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who yesterday said Mrs May’s ‘Chequers’ plan for Brexit was a “constitutional outrage” and called for it to be “chucked.”
