British Prime Minister Theresa May has urged her Conservative Party MPs to shed their “personal preferences” over Brexit and united in the national interest ahead of a fresh round of talks with the European Union on the divorce deal next week. Britain is set to exit the 28-member bloc on March 29, but May is struggling to persuade parliament to back a divorce deal.

In her letter to all 317 Conservative MPs over the weekend, May urged her party to sacrifice “personal preferences” as she attempts to get an agreement on the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU through Parliament.

She warned the Tories, who remain deeply divided over the contours of Brexit, that leaving the EU without a deal on the March 29 deadline “would cause disruption to our economy and to people’s daily lives, damaging jobs both at home and across the EU”.

“Instead, our party can do what it has done so often in the past; Move beyond what divides us and come together behind what unites us; Sacrifice if necessary our own personal preferences in the higher service of the national interest,” she added.

However, the letter was overshadowed by a series of leaked WhatsApp messages magnifying the divide that exists within the UK’s ruling party over the issue.

The messages, received by ‘The Sunday Times’ involve Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party’s 100-strong hard-Brexit European Research Group (ERG), telling colleagues that May’s Brexit negotiations with Brussels were a “complete waste of time”. “What will it take for the PM to accept that we will not accept the ‘backstop’ in its current form,” Baker questioned, in reference to the back-up clause to prevent a hard border between EU member-country Ireland and the UK post-Brexit – which remains the biggest hurdle in the path to an amicable Withdrawal Agreement.