Brexit deal proves critics wrong

British Prime Minister Theresa May has hit back at critics of her handling of Brexit, writing in the Sunday Telegraph that she had "proven the doubters wrong" after securing an interim deal.

Pressure lifted on the embattled leader after she struck a deal with the European Union over Britain's divorce terms last Friday, enabling talks to turn to the country's future trading relationship after months of fraught negotiations.

"We have proven the doubters wrong and are making progress towards a successful exit from the EU," she wrote in the centre-right broadsheet, calling the agreement "a watershed" in negotiations.

"Amid all the noise, we are getting on with the job," she added. "We will not be derailed from this fundamental duty to deliver the democratic will of the British people."

She also played down fears of Brexit voters that Britain would end up being bound by EU rules, insisting that the country would regain "control of our borders, and set our own laws".

A BMG Research poll for The Independent newspaper on Sunday found 51 percent of Britons now favoured staying in the EU compared with 41 percent who backed Brexit, the widest margin since the June 2106 vote.