It’s the night before the Chequers summit and it’s all starting to kick off. After James revealed on Coffee House that the key Brexit customs paper passed by No 10 to Cabinet Ministers ahead of tomorrow’s meeting could be perceived as effectively ruling out a post-Brexit trade deal with the US, Brexiteers have been quick to see red.
Right on cue, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that if May’s proposal is as reported it spells vassal state. The Brexit Secretary has written a letter to the Prime Minister outlining his problems with the government approach. Meanwhile, 46 Tory MPs – including 11 former cabinet ministers – have written to Theresa May, urging her to listen to business ahead of her crucial Chequers meeting on Friday.
It’s clear that a compromise that will unite the Conservative party is nigh on impossible. The question that remains: how big will the backlash be? Although members of the European Research Group are becoming increasingly noisy in their criticism of the No 10 approach, a calculation has been made by Downing Street that the bulk of the party will support a softer type of Brexit so long as Britain leaves the EU.
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