Theresa May plays down idea of extending Brexit transition after fierce Tory backlash - as it happened

• Theresa May has got through what was supposed to be a “moment of truth” EU summit on Brexit without securing a breakthrough towards a deal but with a potential crisis averted and with her European counterparts talking up the prospects of an agreement being reached eventually. At one point it had been hoped that enough progress would be made by today to justify the EU scheduling a summit for November where the withdrawal agreement could be finalised. That did not happen. But, in what seemed a determined effort to avoid a repeat of Salzburg, where their blunt assessment of the problems facing both sides left May going home feeling weakened and humiliated, EU leaders made an effort to put a positive gloss on developments. Donald Tusk, president of the European council, said a deal was “closer” than before and Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission president, said he was convinced a deal would happen. (See 3.51pm.) Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, also struck an upbeat note. In her press conference at the end of the summit she said:

All of the 27 said that we wish to bring about a solution, one that clearly expresses the fact that Britain is no longer a member of the EU, but also expresses what we all want politically speaking - namely that we establish a good relationship with Britain for the future.

As long as we don’t have a satisfactory solution we cannot really explain in a satisfactory way how this is to come about but I think where there is a will there is a way. That is usually the way.

• May has played down the idea that she favours extending the Brexit transition. (See 4.24pm.) She did so after overnight reports saying that she might let it run until December 2021, instead of December 2020, effectively keeping the UK in the EU in all but name for an extra year, provoked a furious backlash amongst her MPs. The former minister Nick Boles said things were so bad that May was “losing the confidence now of colleagues of all shades of opinion, people who have been supportive of her throughout this process”. He also said Tories were “close to despair at the state of this negotiation”. See 8.22pm. The DUP also criticised the plan to extend the transition, even though one reason for it would be to minimise the chances of having to implement the Irish backstop, which they also dislike. Nigel Dodds, the DUP deputy leader, said:

Such an extension would cost United Kingdom billions of pounds, yet our fundamental problem with the EU proposal remains.

• May continues to believe the EU’s proposal for avoiding a hard border in Ireland is unacceptable, senior UK officials have stressed. But at her press conference May did not deny reports saying she told the Irish PM last night that she accepts the Irish backstop cannot be time limited. (See 4.47pm.)

• Andrea Leadsom has told MPs their only real Brexit choice is whether to accept any final deal Theresa May negotiates with Brussels when it comes to the Commons to be signed off.

• Liam Fox, the UK trade secretary, and the US Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, joined key European partners in pulling out out of a major economic forum in Saudi Arabianicknamed Davos in the desert, in response to the alleged murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

• Former prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron have joined hundreds of people to celebrate the life of Dame Tessa Jowell at a memorial service in London.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has a good guide to what happens next in the Brexit process.

18 Oct 201812.14 EDT

Peter Walker

We’ve had a slightly opaque explanation from a No 10 spokeswoman about whether international development secretary Penny Mordaunt contradicted Theresa May by saying the prime minister was not talking about extending the Brexit transition period, when she was. (See 1.49pm.)

The perhaps creative Downing Street line is that there was no disagreement, and that any impression to that effect from Mordaunt was “just language”.

Asked about Mordaunt’s comments, May’s spokeswoman said:

What I heard her say, mainly, is that it is vital everybody gets behind the prime minister and her negotiating team, and I think we’re kind of into semantics about what she said. The point she was making is that this is an idea to have an option, as an insurance policy, as opposed to a formal proposal.

Prodded on whether this was nonetheless still a contradiction of May, the spokeswoman added:

As the PM said this morning, this is just an idea, as an insurance policy. She also said the IP [implementation period] will end in December 2020, and there’s an idea that’s now emerged that we’re going to talk about. I really don’t think there’s any difference in our positions.

Theresa May sounded less angry and pained in that press conference than she was in the press conference at the end of the botched Salzburg summit, but she did not sound any more confident or authoritative. Her line on the transition period was confusing. She did not have anything substantive say on the negotiations (or even a half-decent soundbite - a good substitute for news in circumstances like this, as someone like her predecessor David Cameron fully realised) and she did not try and engage in any meaningful way with her many domestic critics. It was a glaring omission because, unless she can find a strategy to win over the MPs who currently don’t support her plans, all this summitry and treaty-drafting will be pointless.

This is what some journalists are saying about her performance.

From ITV’s Paul Brand

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

From the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh

From the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush

From the Telegraph’s James Rothwell

From Sky’s Beth Rigby

From Business Insider’s Adam Bienkov

Helen McEntee, the Irish Europe minister, told Politico Europe that when she and Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, met Theresa May on Wednesday night, she told them she accepted there could be no time limit to the Irish backstop. Here’s an extract from the Politico story.

Helen McEntee told Politico that the UK prime minister gave the assurance in a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and herself at the European Council summit on Wednesday.

“I think reassuringly from our own meeting with the prime minister yesterday, she again reaffirmed her commitment to an Irish backstop — that it must be within the withdrawal agreement; that it must be legally operable; and that it can’t have a time limit,” she said.

May was asked about this at the press conference. (See 4.03pm.) The Telegraph’s Steven Swinford thinks the most significant moment at the press conference came when she refused to deny it.

What Theresa May said about extending the transition was rather confusing, in that it sounded at first as if she was contradicting what she said about this on her arrival at the summit this morning. (See 8.48am.) So here are the full quotes. May said:

I’ve always been very clear that we negotiated an implementation period with the EU and we negotiated that that implementation period would end at the end of December 2020. What has now emerged is the idea that an option to extend the implementation period could be a further solution to this issue of the backstop in Northern Ireland.

What we are not doing, we are not standing here proposing an extension to the implementation period. What we are doing is working to ensure we have a solution to the backstop issue in Northern Ireland, which is currently a blockage to completing the deal, that enables us to get on with completing the deal that delivers on the vote of the British people and is good for the future of the UK.

And here is how I would explain what she is saying.

• May plays down her support for the idea of extending the Brexit transition. She was not proposing it herself, she said. Instead she described it just as an idea that has “emerged”. (That is what she said this morning, although she strongly implied then that it was an idea that she supported.) She also restated her commitment to ending the transition in December 2020 - something she also stressed this morning, when she described the extension as something that might be negotiated as an option but never actually implemented. May revised her line on the transition after a day in which it became clear that Brexiters, and others in her party, would be horrified by the idea of the transition lasting beyond December 2020.

View image in fullscreen

Q: Can you get a deal through parliament? And do you accept you have underestimated the ability of the EU to get a deal through parliament.

May says she wanted the EU to stay strong.

As for the vote in parliament, she will ask MPs to consider the importance of delivering on the vote of the people. And they will also want to consider what is in the best interests of Britain.

And that’s it.

Q: Is it true you have told the Irish that you accept the backstop cannot be time limited?

May explains why the backstop is needed.

It would be in case of there being a gap between the end of the transition period and the future relationship coming into force.

The future relationship will deal with the border, she says.

Q: What about the release of Anjem Choudary?

May says strict conditions will be imposed on him. If he breaks those, he will go back to prison.

May says she is very aware of the time needed to pass Brexit legislation in the Commons.

Q: With every compromise you make, doesn’t it become less and less likely that your party will support this deal?

May says the proposal to extend the transition has been around before. She has been asked about it in the Commons.

[Yes, but then she knocked the idea down.]

May says she is not proposing an extension to the implementation period.

• May says she is not proposing an extension to the implementation period. (What she means, I think, is that although she is considering an extension as an option, she does not it would ever be needed or implemented.)

UPDATE: For a much fuller account of what she said, and how it fits with what she said earlier, see 4.24pm.

Q: You have angered leavers and remainers, and disappointed EU leaders by not having any new proposals. They even went for a beer without you. What is going wrong?

May says further work is needed on the Irish backstop. Further plans have been put forward. She wants to get to a deal that will work for the British people.

Theresa May says she updated EU leaders on the progress made in the Brexit talks last night.

On the withdrawal agreement, there are a few but considerable issues to be resolved.

But she is convinced she will secure a good deal, she says.

Q: [From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg] You have been straining to keep all the promises you have made. You are going to have to disappoint someone. Who?

May says she wants a deal that implements the referendum result, but protects jobs.

That would be good for the UK and the EU.

(She ignores the question completely.)

Here are the key points from the Tusk/Juncker press conference.

• The two senior senior EU leaders both expressed optimism about a Brexit deal being agreed. Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission president, said a deal would happen. He told journalists.

I’m convinced that, under the leadership of Donald, we’ll find a deal with Britain. My working assumption is not that we will have a no deal. A no deal would be dangerous for Britain and for the European Union ... It will be done.

And Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said the EU was “closer” to a deal than before.

What I can say today is that we are in a much better mood than after Salzburg and what I feel today is we are closer to final solutions and the deal. But it is maybe more emotional impression than rational one.

• Juncker said he thought the transition period would be extended.

This prolongation of the transition period probably will happen. That’s a good idea. It’s not the best idea the two of us had, but I think this is giving us some room to prepare the future relation in the best way possible.

And Tusk said the EU would be happy to see the transition extended. See 3.25pm.

• Juncker and Tusk refused to comment on reports that the UK would have to pay more into the EU budget if the transition gets extended.

The press conference is now over.