During Tuesday’s LBC radio phone-in, Prime Minister Theresa May refused to say whether she would vote for Brexit if another referendum were held today.
“I don’t answer hypothetical questions,” she told presenter, Iain Dale.
May, who voted to remain in the EU in last year’s referendum, avoided the clear yes/no question with a series of different responses.
“I voted remain for good reasons at the time, but circumstances move on … you’re asking me to say how would I vote in a vote now against a different background, a different international background, a different economic background.”
“I could sit here and I could say ‘Oh, I’d still vote remain or I’d vote leave’ just to give you an answer to that question. I’m being open and honest with you.
“What I did last time round was I looked at everything and came to a judgment and I’d do exactly the same this time round.”
The Prime Minister’s radio interview led to widespread criticism from fellow MPs.
Chris Bryant said that May’s answers to the clear question showed that she “clearly doesn’t believe in Brexit in her heart of hearts, [which] makes her hard Brexit policy all the more irresponsible”.
In a difficult interview, Iain Dale went on to ask May what would happen in a no-deal scenario to EU citizens living in the UK.
When an EU citizen who has been living in the UK for 30 years if she would retain rights to live in the UK, May responded: “We’ve looked at the rights of people staying here if we get a deal, that’s what we’re working at.
“What I’m going to say to Nina is, we will look at the arrangements to put in place if there is no deal. We are doing work on that at the moment. The government across the board is doing work on that.”
“I’m going to get a bit technical here. There are certain rights that pertain to somebody that is an EU citizen here in the UK by virtue of being an EU citizen, things like the benefits that they’re able to access in relation to their home country and the UK.
“Some of those issues would fall away if there was no deal because there wouldn’t be an agreement between us and the EU. So we would have to look at those issues separately in a no-deal scenario.
“But my overall message is I want EU citizens to stay here in the UK and I want to be able to guarantee those rights to enable those people to stay. We’re not going to be throwing EU citizens who are currently here in the UK out of the UK in the future.”