"Mrs. May's speech at the Tory party conference was chock-full of empty rhetoric. Yet again, she speaks up for all the things she opposed during the referendum campaign yet still nothing happens," Batten said, as quoted in a statement published on the party’s website.
In her closing speech earlier in the day, May covered pressing domestic and international issues, and also spent much time criticizing opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn. The major part of speech was also devoted to Brexit. She reiterated her commitment to seeking a "good trading and security relationship" with the European Union. The UK prime minister once again did not rule out a no-deal Brexit, stressing that London would never accept "a deal that keeps us in the EU in all but name" and stipulates a hard border down the Irish Sea.
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Batten also suggested that May’s real goal was to keep the country in the European Union, rather than deliver on the Brexit referendum outcome.
"Theresa May is a Remainer who has no intention of taking us out of the European Union in any real sense whatsoever. Her strategy is to make pleasing noises yet say very little of substance, keeping the country in a holding position until her final betrayal is unveiled at the eleventh hour," he added.
The United Kingdom is scheduled to withdraw from the bloc on March 29, 2019. However, the UK-EU negotiations on Brexit have reached an impasse after Brussels rejected May's Chequers plan. The plan envisages the establishment of a UK-EU free trade area based on a "common rulebook" and the refusal to draw a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. According to the European Union, London’s plan threatens to ruin the integrity of the EU single market.
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