Theresa May takes swipe at Boris Johnson as she insists her Brexit deal was ‘better’

Lorrine: Theresa May talks about her legacy as PM Theresa May insisted her Brexit agreement was “better” than the one Boris Johnson struck with the EU. In a swipe at her successor, who effectively forced her out of office, the former prime minister said he negotiated a “bad deal”. Mrs May said Mr Johnson’s withdrawal agreement made it “difficult” for Northern Ireland because it had to follow different rules to the rest of the UK. She told LBC’s Tonight With Andrew Marr: “It was a bad deal, I think as we saw from all the problems we had on the Northern Ireland Protocol. “And Rishi Sunak came in and of course agreed the Windsor Framework, which has eased that situation and in many ways resolves those issues. Theresa May failed to gain Parliament’s support for her Brexit deal Trending “But we had that period of time when it was really very difficult for Northern Ireland and difficult for people, supermarkets and so forth in Great Britain who were sending food over to Northern Ireland, all the checks and stuff that came as a result of Boris Johnson’s deal. “So that is why I think my deal would not have been in that position and would have been better.” Mrs May’s deal would have kept the UK shackled to the EU’s rules until both sides could be assured that Brexit measures would not establish a hard border in Ireland, under a mechanism known as the “backstop”. But the former prime minister failed to gain Parliament’s support for the agreement. Mrs May said her priority when she entered No 10 after the 2016 referendum was to negotiate a deal that could be supported by both Brexiteers and Remainers. She told Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking BBC podcast: ‘It wouldn’t have given either side 100 percent of what they wanted but it would have given the country a better overall deal. ‘I was trying to get people beyond that sense of only looking at what the past had been like.’ Mrs May, who is promoting her new book The Abuse of Power, went on: ‘We had to recognise that the result was close: 48 percent voted remain. ‘But what I saw in the House of Commons through that process of negotiation, the hardliners on either side were increasingly trying to find ways to thwart a deal that I think would have been better.’