Britain and EU agree draft Brexit deal and PM calls Cabinet meeting to sign off on blueprint

Britain and the European Union have agreed a draft blueprint for the UK’s departure from the EU, officials confirmed.

A spokesman for Downing Street said that Prime Minister Theresa May would brief her Cabinet ministers one by one before a special cabinet meeting at 2pm today to review the deal and “the next steps”.

The apparent breakthrough came after months of protracted talks in Brussels with measures to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland being the main obstacle to a deal.

News of the breakthrough was greeted by a mixture of relief and condemnation by critics of the plan, who suggested the agreement gave away too many powers to Brussels.

Details that emerged last night appeared to open the way for further ministerial departures after months of infighting in Mrs May’s government.

Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary and the most prominent campaigner to leave the EU, claimed that the deal reduced the UK to the level of a “vassal state”.

Sources said a deal was agreed about 9pm on Monday night in Brussels, and then sent back to Mrs May for review. They said the text of the deal was stable, although “further shuttling” was to be done between Westminster and Brussels.

Final sticking points were believed to have been the Irish border, and the backstop – a fall-back plan in event of no deal being struck. The deal is thought to include “special provisions” for Northern Ireland.

Eurosceptic MPs were quick to condemn the arrangements, with chief Brexiteer Jacob ReesMogg saying the “white flags” of surrender had gone up.

He said the deal was a “failure to deliver on Brexit” and made it difficult to “trust anything that comes out of Downing Street” again.