Theresa May has said that the only alternative to the Chequers plan is leaving the EU without a deal.
In an interview with Panorama, the prime minister said she was confident of getting an agreement based on the compromise she reached with her cabinet.
“I believe we will get a good deal. We will bring that back from the EU negotiations and put that to parliament. I think that the alternative to that will be not having a deal,” she told Nick Robinson.
“The European Union had basically put two offers on the table. Either the UK stays in the single market and the customs union – effectively in the EU – that would have betrayed the vote of the British people,” she said.
“Or, on the other side, a basic free trade agreement but carving Northern Ireland out and effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the European Union and Great Britain out. That would have broken up the United Kingdom, or could have broken up the United Kingdom. Both of those were unacceptable to the UK.”
“We said ‘no’ … we’re going to put our own proposal forward and that’s what Chequers is about … It unblocked the negotiations.”
The Chequers plan led to the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson.
In the interview with the BBC, May also rejected plans for an Irish border.
“What many of these other plans are based on is moving the border. You don’t solve the issue of no hard border by having a hard border 20km inside Northern Ireland, or 20km inside Ireland. It is still a hard border,” she said.
“What we’ve done is listen to the people of Northern Ireland … They don’t want a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. The only proposal that has been put forward that delivers on them not having that hard border, and ensures that we don’t carve up the United Kingdom, is the Chequers plan.”
The interview, which will be broadcast on Monday, marks six months before the UK will leave the EU.