While she narrowly had the plan agreed by her Cabinet Wednesday, the plan is already under attack from almost all sides of the UK's political spectrum, with Brexiter and Remainers united in opposition -- although for vastly different reasons. In a sign of the bitter struggle ahead, a junior minister resigned within hours of the draft deal being announced.
Standing outside Downing Street following the five-hour Cabinet meeting, May announced that she had won the backing of her senior ministers. "This is a decisive step which enables us to move on and finalize the deal in the days ahead," she said.
Even as Wednesday evening's meeting drew to a close, rumors swirled in Westminster that May could face a vote of no-confidence from within the ranks of her own Conservative Party.
Minister for Northern Ireland Shailesh Vara became the first member of the government to quit after the Cabinet agreed the deal. He argued that the 2016 referendum had given the government clear direction to exit but that the plan, which includes a "backstop" provision that would see the country stay within EU customs and trade rules to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, does not deliver that.
In his resignation letter, a photograph of which he tweeted Thursday morning, he said that "the agreement put forward... leaves the UK in a half-way house with no time limit on when we finally be a sovereign nation."
Thursday's front pages reflected the difficulties ahead. The Financial Times predicted a "backlash" following the "ferocious Brexit battle," while the Daily Mail focused on the Prime Minister's defiant tone with the headline, "I stand to fight."
The Guardian, which had supported Remain, pointed to the divisions that May's Brexit plan had created under the banner "a split cabinet, a split party and a split nation."
All sides 'still have a long road ahead'
Speaking at a press event in Brussels Thursday morning, the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier called the draft agreement a "very important moment. What we have agreed.. is fair and balanced, takes into account the UK's positions, (and) organizes withdrawal in orderly fashion and ensure no hard border... and lays the ground for an ambitious new partnership.
"Our work is not finished, we still have a long road ahead of us on both sides. We have no time to lose," he said, before handing the 558-page draft document to Tusk, who, in a tongue-in-cheek exchange with a reporter, said he has read "almost everything" in the document.
"I don't share the (British) Prime Minister's enthusiasm about Brexit as such. From the beginning we had no doubt that Brexit was a lose-lose situation and negotiations are about damage control.
He said the agreement is now being analyzed by all member states and by the end of the week the EU 27 ambassadors will meet to share their views on it.
The commission intends to agree the framework by Tuesday, he said, and a European council meeting to "finalize and formalize the agreement" will be held on Sunday November 25th.
While he said he regrets the UK's decision to leave the bloc, he said he "would do everything to make this farewell the least painful possible for you or for us," he said, addressing the UK.
Knives are out
The Conservative Party is deeply divided between hardline Brexit supporters and others who voted to remain in the EU, and Wednesday's breakthrough is only the beginning of what is expected to be a protracted and painful political process.
Chief among hardliners' concerns is that the agreement will tie the UK to the EU's customs union and parts of the single market free-trade area for years to come, without any say in how the bloc is run.
A sign of the peril faced by May came at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons earlier Wednesday, when one of her own MPs, Peter Bone, accused her of "not delivering the Brexit people voted for." Bone said May would "lose the support of many Conservative MPs and millions of voters across the country."
One of the Prime Minister's most vocal rivals, arch-Brexiter and MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, was critical of the proposal.
In a statement, he said that "the proposed agreement will see the UK hand over £39 billion ($50.7 billion) to the EU for little or nothing in return."
The Prime Minister was not without her supporters, however. Brandon Lewis, Chairman of the Conservatives & Conservative MP for Great Yarmouth, said in a tweet that May's deal is "absolutely the right deal for Britain. It gets people what they voted for -- control of our money, borders and laws."
Opposition politicians were largely scathing of the deal. Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, laid into the PM's deal. "After two years of bungled negotiations, from what we know of the government's deal, it's a failure in its own terms," Corbyn said, repeatedly describing the negotiations as "shambolic."
He slammed May for offering a choice between a "botched deal and no deal." It seems unthinkable that his party would support May's deal when it comes to a vote.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Thursday morning, shadow Brexit secretary Kier Starmer said that the document was a "failure of negotiation."
"We've read and analyzed all 500 pages -- it's a miserable failure of negotiation."
He said there was "huge detail" about "issues like the backstop which the government says it doesn't intend to use," but said it was "vague" in other, key areas.
"For the future relationship, what it does intend, it's seven pages, it's vague in the extreme. Only three of those are about the future economic relationship."
"We talk about blind Brexit but this is about the blindest of blind Brexits."
Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon said late Wednesday that she had had a telephone conversation with May in which the PM had promised that Scotland's "'distinctive' interests had been protected," but contested that interpretation.
"I pointed out that there isn't a single mention of Scotland in the agreement, that it disregards our interests, and puts Scotland at a serious competitive disadvantage," Sturgeon tweeted.
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