Did she share her Chequers plan with Merkel first?

THERESA May last night faced claims she shared her Brexit plan with Angela Merkel before revealing it to her Cabinet at Chequers.

The Prime Minister is alleged to have blocked a suggested change from one of her ministers during the away day because it had already been approved by the German Chancellor.

In an article for the Spectator, journalist Charles Moore wrote: ‘At Chequers, I hear, one of her responses to suggested changes in her blueprint was to say, “No, that’s not possible, because I’ve already cleared it [the existing text] with Mrs Merkel”.’

The Prime Minister flew to Berlin last Thursday, on the eve of her Chequers summit, to hold a meeting with Mrs Merkel. Last night Downing Street declined to comment.

Mrs May today publishes her longawaited Brexit White Paper setting out the full details of the Chequers agreement. In the foreword to the 120-page document, new Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will say it is ‘a vision that respects the result of the referendum and delivers a principled and practical Brexit’. He adds: ‘ Leaving the European Union involves challenge and opportunity. We need to rise to the challenge and grasp the opportunities.’

Tory MPs yesterday said the Chequers Brexit plan looked like a Cabinet ‘sellout’ and ‘capitulation’ to the European Union, and suggested the plan was a ploy to keep the UK in the customs union.

Julia Lopez questioned whether the ‘common rule book’ described in the Chequers plan was an ‘honest term’. The Tory MP suggested the EU would hold more sway and would be tempted to introduce measures that would be harmful to the UK.

‘Do you not think it would be more honest to call it an EU rule book that the UK applies?’ she asked.