The Prime Minister’s comments were a thinly-veiled swipe at Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who voted to urge the bloc to not open the next phase of Brexit talks unless there was a “major breakthrough”.
MEPs voted by 557 to 92 against allowing the next phase of talks, which will centre on the future trade relationship between the UK and the 27-nation bloc after Brexit, to begin.
The European Parliament backed an advisory motion claiming there had not been “sufficient progress” in the negotiation to allow the second phase of discussions to begin.
Mrs May dismissed the outcome of the European Parliament vote last night.
She said: “I don’t think that vote was a particularly unexpected one.
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
“The question isn’t so much around this formal declaration of sufficient progress.
“The question is: are people now ready to think about what the future partnership between the UK and EU will be?
“We have to get to that at some point.
“I believe it’s possible to get to a good, deep and special partnership because it’s good not just for the UK, it’s good for the EU as well.
“What I hear is that people are starting to think about that.”
Tory Cabinet minister Liam Fox warned after the vote the Brexit process was being made “harder than it has to be”.
The International Trade Secretary, said: “The blame for that doesn’t lie on this side of the Channel, the blame for that lies on the unwillingness of the European Union to get into the second stage of negotiations.
“There’s intense frustration that the European Union are concentrating on issues like the money and not letting us progress beyond that.”
Ahead of the vote, both European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told the plenary session of the parliament Mrs May’s recent offer of a deal – including a two-year transition period and an £18billion payment – had been a step forward but was not enough.
Mr Juncker told MEPs: “We cannot talk about the future without any real clarity.
“The Prime Minister’s speech in Florence was conciliatory, but speeches are not negotiation positions.”
The former leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage even intervened in the debate in Strasbourg to accuse the EU of attempting to hold Britain “to ransom”.
He told the EU bureaucrats: “Brexit was an act of liberation, it was a voice of national self-determination that cannot and will not be stopped, but through this negotiating process I’m afraid from the start you’ve treated us as if we’re some kind of hostage.
“Unless we pay a ransom, unless we meet all of your demands, all of your demands, then you won’t even have an intelligent conversation with us about trade heading on from here.”
Manfred Weber, leader of the centre-right European Peoples’ Party grouping in the European Parliament and a close ally of German chancellor Angela Merkel, criticised Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson during the debate.
He said: ”By reading Johnson’s attacks against his own Prime Minister, he shows the British Government is trapped by their own party quarrels and political contradictions.”