A weekend of murder for May
be mayhem and our poll ratings will plummet. She should dare ministers who will not toe the line to walk away from the Cabinet.”
David Davis, the EU Exit Secretary, reckons more than one away day could be needed to finally resolve the dispute over the Brexit plan. “I am going to ask for the keys so I can lock the doors,” he joked to me. Ministers are expecting to be kept at Chequers until the early hours of Saturday morning before being finally released to be ferried home in their ministerial cars.
Sources say a row over the Brexit dividend – the cash savings once the UK quits the EU next year and ceases paying the multibillionpound annual membership fee – has added to the poisoning of the mood ahead of the gathering.
Brexiteer ministers accuse the Prime Minister of underplaying the value of the dividend. “We are missing a real opportunity to trumpet the benefits we’ll get from leaving the EU to make a positive case for Brexit,” one ministerial ally of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said, adding: “Number 10 will do anything to stop Boris being able to claim a win.”
PRO-BRUSSELS ministers hope Mrs May’s decision to summon the entire Cabinet, two-thirds of which voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 in-orout referendum, rather than the finely balanced Brexit sub-committee to Chequers is a signal that the Prime Minister wants to force agreement around her plan for a “customs partnership” that keeps close links with the bloc. Yet their hopes may be disappointed, with several former Remainers including Mr Hunt, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid sounding increasingly hawkish about cutting ties with Brussels in recent weeks.
MPs suspect such shifts in position reflect manoeuvring for a future Tory leadership after the country leaves the EU next year, with contenders mindful of the likely need to win the support of the party’s Brexitbacking grassroots. The jockeying is bound to heighten the murderous ambiance at Chequers.
Mrs May’s team is already on the lookout for fingerprints left by Cabinet plotters. As ministers were driven away long after midnight following a previous Brexit away day at the retreat, aides were monitoring the Twitter feeds of their allies to spot leaks from the discussions. More careful surveillance will be required at Friday’s get-together. The Prime Minister, a keen reader of detective fiction in her rare moments of leisure time, will need the combined sleuthing skills of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot to keep watch on her house guests.