PM to take warring Cabinet to Chequers for Brexit peace talks
THERESA May will try to unite her warring ministers with Brexit peace talks after another day of brutal Cabinet infighting.
The Prime Minister will hold a crunch summit at Chequers next month to hammer out detailed plans for the UK’s future partnership with the EU.
The announcement came as Mrs May and Philip Hammond hit back at Boris Johnson after he made incendiary comments branding the Chancellor’s Treasury ‘the heart of Remain’. But Downing Street made clear the Foreign Secretary would not be sacked and the Prime Minister still had ‘full confidence’ in him.
Eurosceptic MPs rallied behind Mr Johnson, with one saying they ‘punched the air with joy’ after hearing his comments.
Backbencher Nadine Dorries called for the Chancellor to be sacked, saying: ‘Hammond is a road block to a successful Brexit and he has to go to make life eas- ier for the Prime Minister.’ And a former Cabinet minister accused Mr Hammond of trying to turn Brexit into a ‘failed project’, telling the Daily Mail: ‘He wants it to fail so his stance during the referendum is vindicated.’ But the Chancellor was praised by pro-EU Labour MPs, who said he was ‘telling the truth’ about Brexit.
On Thursday, Mr Johnson accused the Chancellor of trying to block Brexit, dismissed Treasury forecasts about the economic impact of leaving the EU as ‘mumbo jumbo’, and suggested Donald Trump would make a better job of the negotiations.
Yesterday Mrs May said that Brexit negotiations were ‘ not easy’, but added: ‘The Foreign Secretary has strong views on Brexit, but so do I, that’s why I’m getting on with delivering Brexit.’
Meanwhile, speaking in Berlin, Mr Hammond seized on Mr Johnson’s suggestion that Mr Trump would take a tougher approach to the negotiations. He argued it would be better to take a ‘collaborative approach’ with ‘our European partners’ and to ‘compromise’.
The Prime Minister, who is attending the G7 summit in Canada, slapped down Mr Johnson’s remarks on the border in Northern Ireland, insisting that the issue is ‘very important to the UK’.
The Foreign Secretary said that on Northern Ireland, Mrs May was ‘allowing the tail to wag the dog’. But Mrs May retorted: ‘I have been very clear and the Government is very clear that we want to ensure there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.’
She added: ‘If you just look at this negotiation, it is complex, it’s not easy. People said before December that we wouldn’t be able to achieve the joint report – we did. People were sceptical before March that we wouldn’t be able to deliver an implementation agreement – we did just that.
‘Now we’re getting on with discussing our future relationship and the reason we’re doing this is because I want to see a Britain that’s in control of its money, its laws and its borders, that we’re able to have those trade relationships with the rest of the world, and build that brighter future for the people of Britain.’
Mrs May said ministers will assemble at her country retreat at Chequers to finalise details of the UK proposal for our future relationship with the EU.
She said: ‘Next week, of course, we’re bringing the EU Withdrawal Bill, the Lords amendments on the EU Withdrawal Bill, back to the House. After that, I’ll be going to the European Council where I’ll be discussing, dealing with the final withdrawal agreement arrangements and also pressing the case for the negotiations on our future relationship.
‘After that... we’ll be having another away day with ministers at Chequers where we’ll be finalising our White Paper for publication, and then before we break for the summer in the Commons we’ll be taking the other two bills that need to be addressed.’
It came as EU negotiator Michel Barnier unleashed a fresh Brexit row by insisting that he will not be ‘intimidated’ by UK threats after tearing apart Mrs May’s Brexit breakthrough plan.
Mr Barnier took aim at Mr Johnson by accusing Brexiteer ministers of orchestrating a ‘ blame game’ against Brussels. He said UK ministers were showing ‘nostalgia’ for the EU by wanting to stay close to the bloc without ‘assuming the consequences’.
But Mrs May hit back, insisting that Mr Barnier’s dismissal of her so-called ‘backstop’ proposal was simply a negotiating tactic. She said: ‘We are in a negotiation. At every stage the European Commission will sometimes say they welcome our proposals, they’re going to talk about our proposals and sometimes they throw some scepticism on those proposals.
‘What happens? We sit down, we talk about them and we deliver.’
‘Punched the air with joy’