Prime Minister Theresa May has urged the electorate to vote for the Conservative Party when they head to the polls next week because “it’s only them who can deliver Brexit”,
Mrs May made the comments during a visit to Bristol today (Friday) ahead of next week's European elections, where the Tories are braced for a backlash from voters angry at her inability to deliver Brexit.
Most media - including all local press - were barred from the event at Ashton Gate, with only representatives from the Press Association and Sky News invited to attend.
During the event the Prime Minister said: "The Conservative Party didn't want to be fighting these. We wanted to be out of the European Union.
"Indeed if Parliament had backed our Brexit deal we could already have left the EU, but we're a national party, we fight national elections.
"And next Thursday I want people to vote Conservative because it's only the Conservatives who can deliver Brexit and take this country forward into a brighter future.
"No-one else can get the job done. Labour, the Lib Dems and SNP have voted against delivering Brexit again and again.
"Nigel Farage can't deliver Brexit: every few years he pops up, he shouts from the sidelines, he doesn't work constructively in the national interest.
"So if you want a party that works in the national interest, vote Conservative. To vote for a party that can deliver Brexit, vote Conservative. To vote for a party that will take this country forward to a brighter future, vote Conservative."
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The visit to Bristol followed reports that the PM and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had clashed following the collapse of cross-party talks aimed at finding a Brexit compromise.
The Labour leader pulled the plug on negotiations after six weeks of talks, saying they had "gone as far as they can" and "we have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us".
Mr Corbyn also said the prospect of a change in Tory leadership meant the Government was "ever more unstable and its authority eroded" and Labour could not be confident in any cross-party agreement being delivered by her successor.
But the Prime Minister highlighted Labour's own divisions over the issue of a second referendum, saying they had made it impossible for a deal to be reached.
Allies of Mrs May pointed the finger at shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, a key player in the negotiations, who has suggested that a deal would be unlikely to get through the Commons without a referendum attached.
Speaking about the breakdown of the talks in Bristol earlier today, Mrs May said: "There have been areas where we have been able to find common ground, but other issues have proved to be more difficult - and in particular we have not been able to overcome the fact that there isn't a common position in Labour about whether they want to deliver Brexit or hold a second referendum which could reverse it."
