Theresa May last night ruled out calling a general election before Britain leaves the EU – as it would not be in the ‘national interest’.
The PM dismissed claims she could call a snap poll in the Autumn if she cannot get any Brexit deal through Parliament – and sidestepped questions over whether she would quit at that point.
As she flew to New York for the UN General Assembly, Mrs May also rejected a looser Canada-style arrangement, suggesting it would be worse than no deal as it would mean the break up of the UK.
Under the EU’s proposals Northern Ireland would stay in the customs union and single market while the rest of the UK leaves something Mrs May has said no PM could accept.
Tory Eurosceptics including Jacob Rees Mogg and former Brexit Secretary David Davis urged Mrs May to abandon Chequers.
This week they urged her to accept a ‘Canada plus’ free trade deal would liberate the UK to make agreements with the US and other fast-growing economies.
Theresa May (pictured at Downing Street yesterday) will urge the world to unite against chemical weapons in a major address to world leaders in New York
But Mrs May said: ‘First of all I have always said no deal is better than a bad deal.
‘I think a bad deal would be for example a deal that broke up the United Kingdom.’
At the weekend it was claimed Downing Street aides discussed the prospect of an Autumn election – what would be the third in four years – to win a further mandate for any deal.
Interviewed by journalists on route to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, Mrs May was asked whether ‘Brenda from Bristol’ – the woman whose horrified reaction to last year’s election was caught on TV – could be reassured there would be no repeat.
Mrs May replied: ‘What I’m doing is working to deliver a good deal with Europe in the national interest. It would not be in the national interest to have an election.’
She added that she ‘absolutely believes in delivering on people’s vote’ in the referendum.
In a swipe at Labour, she accused them of siding with the EU in the talks.
‘Labour will oppose any deal I bring back, regardless of how good it is for the UK.
‘And they will accept any deal Europe gives regardless of how good it is for the UK,’ she said.
Tory Eurosceptics including Jacob Rees Mogg and former Brexit Secretary David Davis urged Mrs May to abandon Chequers.
Tory Eurosceptics want Mrs May to abandon Chequers – which will mean accepting all single market rules relating to manufactured goods and food. They say it will restrict free trade deals with other countries.
Mrs May said a bad deal would be ‘a deal that breaks up the UK’ and undermines our ‘constitutional integrity’.
In her speech to world leaders tomorrow Mrs May will urge the world to unite against chemical weapons.
The Prime Minister will use her speech to the UN General Assembly to warn ‘red lines’ around chemical weapons are being ‘eroded’.
She will point to the ‘despicable’ use of novichok by Russia in Salisbury and by the Syrian regime against its own people.
She will point to the ‘despicable’ use of novichok by Russia in Salisbury to try and kill Sergei Skripal (pictured) and by the Syrian regime against its own people
In her speech tomorrow Mrs May will say: ‘The Syrian regime has repeatedly used these appalling weapons against its own people while the Russian state has deployed them on UK streets.
‘Attacks such as Salisbury and Ghouta are despicable in their own right, but they are also a threat to the wider international system.
‘Each time we fail to challenge the use or development of weapons of mass destruction it erodes the framework of treaties we have built up so painstakingly over the past few decades.’
She will urge the international community to ‘do more together to prevent future chemical weapons use and ensure those who use them are held to account’.
During her two days in New York, Mrs May is expected to meet US President Donald Trump for the first time since he came to Britain this summer.
The two leaders are set to discuss prospects for a post-Brexit US-UK trade deal.
Mrs May will also personally lobby the president of Iran to release the British mother imprisoned by the regime.
Aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 after being accused of spying by Tehran’s Islamist regime.
Mrs May will also personally lobby the president of Iran to release the British mother imprisoned by the regime. Aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Mrs May will use a one-on-one meeting with President Hassan Rouhani to urge him to release her.
A senior Government official said Mrs May would express ‘serious concerns’ at Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ongoing detention and call for her to be released on humanitarian grounds.
The move marks an escalation of the Government’s campaign on behalf of the mother-of-one, who has joint British and Iranian citizenship, and will increase the pressure on Iran to let her out.
It follows intensive diplomatic efforts from Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, which last month saw Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe granted temporary release.
She spent three days with her family, reuniting with her four-year-old daughter Gabriella. She was quoted as saying she ‘cried so much’ and said she wanted her child to ‘have a mummy again’.
During her two days in New York, Mrs May is expected to meet US President Donald Trump for the first time since he came to Britain this summer (pictured)