LONDON (Guardian) – Prime Minister Theresa May has told business leaders they must "play their part” in creating a successful post-Brexit Britain as she promised that her deal with the EU would set the UK on a path to a more prosperous future.
The prime minister said she was "unashamedly” putting economic success and the livelihoods of "real people” first as she attempted to seize the initiative back from febrile Tory Brexiters and win over business leaders with her future plans.
In a defiant speech to business leaders at the CBI’s annual conference, she said: "We’re not talking about political theory, but the reality of people’s lives and livelihoods; jobs depend on us getting this right.”
As she prepared to travel to Brussels this week to negotiate details of the UK’s future relationship with the EU, May stressed that business would have an essential role to play once that was agreed in showing that it "can and should” be a force for good.
She said that the best way to do that was invest in and provide skills for the next generation of British workers, as well as spending on research and development. "We will only succeed if business plays its part too,” she added.
As she enters perhaps the most perilous week of her premiership, May promised that her Brexit deal delivered on the central demand of voters in the 2016 referendum, by allowing the UK to control immigration.
 "Getting back full control of our borders is an issue of great importance to the British people,” she said, adding that EU citizens would no longer be able to "jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi”.
Downing Street hopes that by stressing what it regards as the positive aspects of the deal reached with Brussels last week, May can win over doubters in her party and undercut Tory rightwingers calling for her to be ousted.
Ministers also hope that after this week’s talks with the European commission, the whole Brexit package, which also includes the withdrawal agreement containing the controversial backstop, can be approved at a special EU summit next Sunday.
May received the backing of Carolyn Fairbairn, the head of the CBI, who warned that UK firms were cancelling investments in Britain.
May insisted she would press ahead with her Brexit plans despite attempts from within her own party to force the government to take a different course.