Brexit supporting newspapers are split over the withdrawal agreement secured by Prime Minister Theresa May that has prompted cabinet resignations this morning.
The 585-page agreement covering all areas of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, which was backed by the cabinet after a five-hour meeting yesterday, has angered some Brexiteer MPs.
Pro-Brexit papers have split views on the deal, with the Daily Mail and Express supporting it while the Sun front page ran the headline: “We’re in the Brexs*it”.
The Sun’s leader pushed the Prime Minister to end a “decade of lies that took us into the EU and kept us there”.
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It added: “The public has been sold a pup again and again. It has had enough.
“Come clean with Britain. This deal is not wholly without merit. But let us see it for what it is.”
The Telegraph said in a leader that “this is not the good deal the public was anticipating, but a bad one.”
The paper also carried a column by Theresa May’s former joint chief of staff Nick Timothy that dubbed the deal a “capitulation” by the Prime Minister.
Under its new editor Geordie Greig, former editor of the pro-Remain Mail on Sunday, the Daily Mail has softened its take on Brexit.
In a shift away from its editorial stance under former-editor Paul Dacre, the Daily Mail leader praised May’s deal and took aim at “zealous Brexiteers”.
It accused hard line Leavers and “Labour opportunists” of “gambling with our future” by threatening to vote the deal down in the Commons.
The column read: “Will the die-hards never get the message that Britain is fed up with their posturing?
“The public want Brexit pushed through with the best deal Brussels is prepared to sign.”
The Daily Mail’s support for the Prime Minister in today’s leader column comes after the paper praised her for making a “historic deal” against “insuperable odds”.
Its mid-market competitor the Daily Express has shown similar support for the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal.
The paper’s front page yesterday described May’s deal as the “best for Britain”. Today, its front page celebrated “cabinet backing” for the deal.
At the time of writing, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey have resigned from the cabinet over the Brexit deal.
In its leader column, the Express described May as a “remarkable Prime Minister” who had “defied all dire predictions”.
Pro-Brexit current affairs magazine The Spectator was less charitable. Its leader column this week said: “During last year’s general election campaign, Theresa May declared that ‘You can only deliver Brexit if you believe in Brexit’.
“Unfortunately, her deal proves this point. It was negotiated by a team of people who imagined their job to be a damage-limitation exercise.
“They did not see Brexit as an opportunity and this is reflected in the terms put before the cabinet.”
Picture: The Daily Telegraph/Daily Express/The Sun/Daily Mail
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