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May faces Brexiteer fury as Cabinet prepares to consider deal

Theresa May’s Cabinet will gather for a special meeting on Wednesday after negotiators in Brussels reached a Brexit deal.

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Theresa May

Theresa May faced a Brexiteer backlash as her Cabinet began consideration of a deal with Brussels.

Number 10 confirmed a draft deal had been reached by officials negotiating in Brussels after months of protracted talks.

Ministers have been invited to Downing Street to read documents relating to the agreement before a special Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson urged his ex-Cabinet colleagues to “chuck it out”, warning that the proposals made a “nonsense of Brexit”.

And Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the influential European Research Group of dozens of Tory MPs, said: “It is a failure of the Government’s negotiating position, it is a failure to deliver on Brexit and it is potentially dividing up the United Kingdom.”

A series of ministers have been seen entering and leaving Downing Street following the Number 10 announcement.

Dominic Raab leaves Downing Street after a meeting (Victoria Jones/PA)
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab leaves Downing Street after a meeting (Victoria Jones/PA)

Chief Whip Julian Smith told reporters: “I am confident that we will get this through Parliament and that we can deliver on what the Prime Minister committed to on delivering Brexit.”

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said ministers would have to “reflect on the detail”.

“That’s what the Government has been working for all this time, to get a deal, and negotiators have worked incredibly hard to get us to this point but we have to reflect on the detail and consider at Cabinet tomorrow,” he said.

The special meeting on Wednesday could potentially be a flashpoint for tensions between Brexiteers and Remainers around the Cabinet table, with speculation that Leave-supporting ministers including Penny Mordaunt, Esther McVey and Liam Fox could be prepared to walk out if a deal ties the UK too closely to Brussels.

The deal follows intense negotiation in Brussels, with measures to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland the main stumbling block.

Irish broadcaster RTE reported that a “stable” text had been agreed on the thorny issue of the Northern Irish border.

The broadcaster said the deal involved one overall “backstop” in the form of a UK-wide customs arrangement – as sought by Mrs May – but with deeper provisions for Northern Ireland on customs and regulations.

A review mechanism is understood to be part of the text, but it is unclear whether that would meet the demands of Tory Brexiteers – including some in the Cabinet – who want the UK to be able to unilaterally walk away from the deal to prevent it becoming a permanent settlement.

A Number 10 spokesman said: “Cabinet will meet at 2pm tomorrow to consider the draft agreement the negotiating teams have reached in Brussels and to decide on next steps.

“Cabinet ministers have been invited to read documentation ahead of that meeting.”

Brexiteers lined up to condemn the deal before its details had even been officially confirmed.

Mr Johnson told the BBC: “For the first time in a thousand years, this place, this Parliament, will not have a say over the laws that govern this country. It is a quite incredible state of affairs.”

Mr Rees-Mogg told the broadcaster: “White flags have gone up all over Whitehall. It is a betrayal of the Union.”

Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith suggested Mrs May’s administration could collapse over the deal.

He warned that if reports of the deal’s contents were true, the Government was “breaking their own agreed position and will be bringing back something that is untenable”.

He added that “if the Cabinet agrees it, the party certainly won’t”.

Asked if the Government’s days were numbered, he said: “If this is the case almost certainly, yes.”

Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the DUP which props up Mrs May’s minority administration, said that the deal as reported would leave Northern Ireland “subject to the rules and laws set in Brussels with no democratic input or any say”.

He added: “We object to that on constitutional grounds that our laws would be made in Brussels, not in Westminster or Belfast.

“That is the fundamental red line.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the party would vote against the deal if it failed to meet its tests.

“We will look at the details of what has been agreed when they are available,” he said.

“But from what we know of the shambolic handling of these negotiations, this is unlikely to be a good deal for the country.”

Neither Brussels nor Dublin confirmed that a deal had been reached, despite the Number 10 announcement.

A spokesman for chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said the latest in the negotiations had been set out earlier by commission vice president Frans Timmermans, who said that while the talks were making progress “we are not there yet”.

The European Commission would “take stock” on Wednesday, he added.

A spokesman for Ireland’s deputy premier Simon Coveney said that negotiations were at a “sensitive” juncture.

“We are not commenting on media speculation around the withdrawal agreement,” the spokesman said.

“Michel Barnier and the task force are charged with negotiating with the UK and we have been in constant communication with them throughout.”

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