A leading economist has lampooned Theresa May’s Brexit deal as the kind a “nation signs only after having been defeated at war”.
In a blistering attack on BBC Question Time, Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s former finance minister, said Mrs May’s deal is not “built for purpose for any sovereign country”.
The panel had been asked by an audience member who was to blame for Brexit not happening on Friday: the UK’s original scheduled departure date from the EU.
“The answer is very simple,” Mr Varoufakis said with a smile. "Theresa May. First she triggered Article 50 on the basis of red lines which boxed her in to an impossibility.
"And secondly, and that is a crime against logic, she failed to recognise that Michel Barnier, when he announced the two-phase negotiation process, was issuing a declaration of hostilities against the government.”
Addressing the audience member, he continued: “She never even saw this coming. Because if I come to you and say: 'Listen, let's have a little negotiation between us, first you're going to give me everything I want, secondly we will discuss [what] you want.’
“You are a sensible young man, clearly you will say 'no, mate'. I am not going to have a negotiation with you along those lines.
“Theresa May started that negotiation. The result was effectively a deal… whether you are a Brexiteer or a Remainer, this is a deal that a nation signs only after having been defeated at war.
“This is not a deal which is built for purpose for any sovereign country."
Instead of leaving the EU as originally planned on Friday, Mrs May was battling to get her Withdrawal Agreement backed by the Commons.
The Prime Minister has split the legally binding treaty segment of her Brexit deal from the declaration on future relations with the EU, in order to ensure MPs could vote on it.
But Mrs May faced an uphill struggle as key government allies the DUP joined Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in saying they would vote against the move.
