PM invites entire Cabinet to vital Chequers summit
THERESA May’s Brexit ‘war cabinet’ is set to be sidelined in crunch talks on the Government’s approach next week.
Government sources last night told the Daily Mail that the full Cabinet will be invited to next week’s summit at Chequers, where the Prime Minister hopes to hammer out an agreement on Brexit.
Brexit Secretary David Davis had pushed for a two-day meeting, with the first day attended only by the 11-strong ‘war cabinet’ of senior ministers, which has set Brexit policy until now. But sources said the idea had been rejected.
The decision to effectively bypass the war cabinet follows a stormy meeting last month, when Eurosceptic ministers rejected Mrs May’s preferred plans for a new ‘customs partnership’ with the EU.
Critics fear that by opening up the debate to the full Cabinet, Mrs May will dilute the influence of pro-Brexit ministers. Of the 29 ministers who attend Cabinet, just eight voted to leave the EU.
The meeting on July 6 is designed to agree the details of a 150-page White Paper setting out the Government’s vision for future relations with the EU. The length of the document, coupled with the tight timeframe and expanded cast list, suggests it will be difficult for ministers to debate many points in detail.
Downing Street last night denied the format of the meeting was a ‘stitch-up’.
A Government source said the decision to make the summit a one-day meeting was dictated by demands on the Prime Minister’s diary. The source also defended the decision to invite the full Cabinet, saying: ‘The White Paper will affect every department, so it is right that they are all there. The Prime Minister has diary issues that week... and it is just not possible to do two days. But it is not true to say anyone is being sidelined.’
But Eurosceptic ministers fear the meeting will be used to bounce them into accepting a stance that could see the UK locked into the EU’s orbit for years.
One Cabinet source said: ‘It looks like a stitch-up. Everyone is being kept in the dark, but all the talk is that they are going to try to bounce us into staying in a single market for goods, perhaps with some concessions on free movement.’