If we work at pace, the House of Commons can come together, we can agree a deal, ratify it and get out before having to do EU parliamentary elections. There is an opportunity here and we ought not to lose sight of that.
We have already started the process with the leader of the opposition and it’s right we see that continue to what we hope will be a successful conclusion. We have stressed the urgency because there is an opportunity to avoid EU elections and to bring a resolution for greater certainty.
Bluntly, we will not continue to talk for the sake of it.
But we believe the discussion and dialogue we are having is valuable and we want to see that continue while we think we are making progress. We are invested in this and [the PM] told fellow leaders last night … this is not the usual way of doing things in British politics, it’s much more familiar to some EU leaders in the way that they work but it’s not very typical for the House of Commons.
Should that not come to fruition, there would be a way, if we could agree a process with the Labour party’s participation, for the house to express its preference on options and she also made the point that in any event, we will have to introduce and agree and pass the withdrawal agreement bill.
