ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SKY NEWS, SOPHY RIDGE ON SUNDAY

SOPHY RIDGE: Well Theresa May is desperate to try and win back support from her party, people like our next guest Andrea Jenkyns, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

ANDREA JENKYNS: Good morning Sophy.

SR: You of course voted against the Prime Minister’s deal, you have been very vocal on the reasons why you don’t think it’s a good idea. What would she have to do to win your support?

ANDREA JENKYNS: Well first of all the Prime Minister needs to hold her nerve. I think we’ve seen a lot of movement over the last week and going forward, we’ve heard them saying, we’ve heard talk about rather than having a backstop and a border between Britain and Northern Ireland we hearing talk now of the possibility between the EU and Ireland, so stuff like this. We have also heard this week about the French farmers fearing us leaving on a no deal and also the fishermen, Ministers in France saying their fishing industry could be destroyed and it would be catastrophic for them so they are starting to get a rise from the EU and they are doing all this brinkmanship so I think first of all the Prime Minister needs to hold her nerve. Secondly, I’d like to see her bin the backstop.

SR: What, completely?

ANDREA JENKYNS: Completely, yes.

SR: Wouldn’t starting with a time limit because enough to be going on with?

ANDREA JENKYNS: I think they need to bin it completely. I mean we’ve seen a report that Steve Baker has released this week along with Peter Lilley showing an alternative and don’t forget that the ERG came up with a policy in which we can use existing technology at the borders …

SR: At the same time though we spoke to Ireland’s Europe Minister, Helen McEntee and she said there was no compromise for the backstop, is she right?

ANDREA JENKYNS: Yes, but with respect, they get so much subsidies, Ireland does, from the EU, they would say that, they would be saying exactly what they…

SR: But it is not just because they are worried about the border, they are worried about peace.

ANDREA JENKYNS: But let’s not forget as well the ERG papers that we’ve had over the last few months. Lord Trimble who was involved in the peace process, has recommended these alternative solutions and also if you look at the EU, they suggested back in March last year about the Canada Plus. I mean if we can extend that to Northern Ireland then that’s fantastic, then we are delivering on our manifesto commitment.

SR: But I can’t help but thinking that the EU have been so steadfast in saying that the backstop cannot be negotiated, if you are not willing to accept it that presumably means that you would be happy to go to WTO if you have a no deal so just say that.

ANDREA JENKYNS: I’m not afraid to say that, you can see on Twitter etc I am not afraid to say that, Sophy.

SR: So it is not really about negotiating a deal then?

ANDREA JENKYNS: No, it is because ultimately I want to see a deal but not a deal that the EU has wrote, it has got to be a deal on our terms. Let’s not forget that when we leave the EU we will be their largest trading partner, bigger than the US, bigger than China. We hold about £39 billion, that works out over £60 million per constituency, that could be spent here in Britain and we’ve got a trade deficit and goods with the EU, they send far more to us than we do to them. You know, they want a deal just as much as we do however it’s got to be mutually beneficial.

SR: But they say that they have compromised as well.

ANDREA JENKYNS: Oh yes but let’s not forget back in 2016, Barnier said, I think it was in Le Pointe newspaper, that his job was to give such a bad deal to the UK post-Brexit that they would want to remain. Well I think that the Prime Minister and our chief negotiators need to stand up and not take that. We need to put our country first and they want a deal, if we move on WTO and have that competitive advantage they will not like that.

SR: Okay, it is no secret of course that the Conservative party is pretty split over Brexit right now …

ANDREA JENKYNS: I think that both parties are.

SR: I think that’s right, politicians and the country perhaps, but I just want to have a look at something that you said four months before the referendum in 2016. You were asked how the party would come together afterwards and you said, “It took 18 years for the Conservatives to have a majority government, we are not going to mess it up.” Are you messing it up now because sometimes it can look like that’s what’s happening?

ANDREA JENKYNS: Oh I think it is a mess, completely! I’ve eaten my hat a few times, I said the Prime Minister is on borrowed time and I’ve eaten my hat several times as she’s still there but let’s face it, politics is very hard to predict at the moment.

SR: So who is the right leader to guide the Conservative party out of this mess?

ANDREA JENKYNS: Well I think that … I’m a democrat, this is why I don’t want a second referendum and my colleagues and I have had a vote, yes I wanted a new leader but I think it’s too late now, we are weeks away and so I respect the decision in our party that they …

SR: In a future vote perhaps?

ANDREA JENKYNS: It depends how we end up.

SR: It should be a Brexiter?

ANDREA JENKYNS: It depends, if we are still in a mess it should be a Brexiteer. If we’re in a good place, which I rather hope that is the case, then it could be opened up to other people in all honesty. One thing I’d like to say that I’ve read in the news today that maybe we also ought to replace Olly Robbins with Mr May as the chief negotiator because it seems he is talking more sense at the moment.

SR: That is an idea! Thank you very much for appearing on the programme this morning.