LONDON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday sent some 30 ministers across the country to visit schools, hospitals and businesses in a final push to sell her Brexit deal ahead of next Tuesday's crucial parliament vote.
Senior British cabinet ministers, including Chancellor Philip Hammond and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, are among those who are deployed to local communities to garner support for May's withdrawal agreement.
Hammond visited a Chertsey school while Hancock headed to a hospital in Portsmouth where he announced almost 1 billion pounds of funding for health facilities across England.
British Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, May's de facto deputy, met small business leaders in Belfast, and Scotland Secretary David Mundell spoke to employers in Glasgow.
Meanwhile, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay visited engineering companies in Peterborough and the East Midlands.
The prime minister's 11th-hour efforts came after her government on Tuesday became the first in history to be held in "contempt of parliament" as she battles to win over MPs.
May was forced to publish the "final and full" confidential legal advice given to the cabinet on her Brexit deal. Her government's authority was reduced and the parliament's power on Brexit deal increased.
Her efforts to win public backing for her Brexit deal have yielded little positive results, according to a poll that piles pressure on her to delay a potentially crushing defeat in the House of Commons.
More than 60 percent of the British people think leaving the European Union (EU) on her terms would be a bad outcome for Britain, including 47 percent of Conservatives, reports said, adding that only 25 percent think the deal would be good.
Seven in 10 are not confident the prime minister obtained a good agreement from the EU, including more than half of Conservative supporters. Half of the public say the deal is "worse" than they expected.
May launched her plan to get the public on her side two weeks ago in the hope that MPs would fall into line. But the poll for the Evening Standard, a London-based newspaper, suggested it has fallen flat.
On Thursday, ITV had joined the BBC in cancelling plans to broadcast a televised Brexit debate between the prime minister and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, after Labour and the Conservatives failed to agree which of the rival offers to accept.
Both channels had wanted to host the live program on Sunday evening, two days before the vote, but it now seems unlikely a head-to-head will go ahead.
In defending her agreement with the EU on the UK's departure in March next year, May said, "We have delivered a deal that honours the vote of the British people."
"I've been speaking to factory workers in Scotland, farmers in Wales and people right across the country, answering their questions about the deal and our future," she said. "Overwhelmingly, the message I've heard is that people want us to get on with it."
"And that's why it's important that ministers are out speaking with communities across the UK today about how the deal works for them," the prime minister said.
The backstop, intended to prevent the return of a hard border in Northern Ireland, is highly controversial as Brexiteer MPs claim it traps the UK into obeying rules set by Brussels without a say over them.
The British government said it aims to conclude a comprehensive trade deal with the EU before a backstop arrangement would be needed.
Under the Withdrawal Agreement, the backstop would be introduced if a trade deal had not been agreed by both sides by the time the transition period ends in December 2020. However, the transition period could be extended for a maximum of two more years.
"Mrs May faced calls to postpone Tuesday's vote," senior Conservative MP Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, said, adding that he would welcome the vote being deferred if no solution could be found to differences within the party over the backstop.
