FORMER Prime Minister Theresa May has backed Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – but said her deal was “better” when offered to the Commons in 2019.

MPs gathered both virtually and physically to debate and vote on the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, which was backed by the Commons by 521 to 73 votes.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ordered his side to vote for the agreement as “a thin deal is better than no deal”.

Maidenhead MP Mrs May, who failed to get her withdrawal agreement past the House of Commons, slammed Sir Keir for voting against her “better deal on the table” last year.

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Mrs May said: “He [the Labour leader] said he wanted a better deal. He had the opportunity in early 2019 when there was the opportunity of a better deal on the table and he voted against it, so I will take no lectures from the leader of the opposition on this deal.”

Despite saying she will support the deal, the ex-Prime Minister said she was “disappointed” with its approach to services, as well as not achieving a “ground-breaking” deal for the financial sector.

However, Theresa May welcomed the “very important” security arrangements in the deal.

In her closing remarks, Mrs May warned MPs the UK should not follow “isolationism” after the country cuts its ties with the EU at 11pm on December 31.

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She said: “Sovereignty has underpinned the negotiations since Article 50 was triggered. Sovereignty doesn’t mean isolationism, it does not mean we never accept someone else’s rules, it does not mean exceptionalism.

“It is important as we go forward that we recognise we live in an inter-connective world.”