May’s big Brexit push as 50,000 join the Tories

BREXIT will be “top of the in-tray” when Theresa May returns from holiday, writes Camilla Tominey.

The Prime Minister told Cabinet members to spend the summer working on Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU and they will report back at the Government’s first meeting at Chequers on Wednesday.

Morale in Downing Street has been boosted by new figures suggesting that 50,000 people have joined the Conservative Party since Mrs May took office last month.

Sources say she will demand input on Brexit from everyone around the Cabinet

table, not just leading Brexiteers Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox.

It follows reports that there will not be a parliamentary vote on Brexit before Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is formally triggered, starting the two-year process of leaving the EU.

Sources have said Mrs May believes “Brexit means Brexit” and will not offer opponents the opportunity to stall Britain’s withdrawal.

A Downing Street source said: “The Prime Minister has spoken about her determination to make a success of our exit from the European Union, and her belief that it presents opportunities for the UK. This is top of the in-tray as she returns to Westminster.

“Before the summer she charged all Cabinet ministers with identifying the opportunities in their portfolios.

“She believes everyone should be contributing something to the negotiations, not just the so-called Three Brexiteers.”

Remain supporters had suggested that MPs could use a parliamentary vote to reverse the referendum result.

Yesterday former cabinet secretary Gus O’Donnell said Brexit was not “inevitable” and argued that Britain could remain part of a changed EU by keeping its laws and rules. “The key for Government is to have a strategic plan to say what kind of UK we want,” he told Radio 4. “What is our place in the world? What are we trying to achieve in these negotiations?

“Once you have got those strategic decisions sorted out, then you can set about thinking about when we should implement Article 50. I wouldn’t be in a rush.”

Brexit campaigner and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has said the Government is keen to kick-start the formal process early in the new year.

Wednesday’s meeting at the Prime Minister’s country retreat near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire comes ahead of next weekend’s G20 Summit in China.

Mrs May aims to use her first major international conference to highlight the wealth of opportunities that will arise from Brexit and build on the conversations she has already had with world leaders about mutually beneficial trade relationships.

As well as the thousands of new Tory recruits her election has attracted, there has also been a record-breaking number of registrations for the Conservative Party Conference in October. Having promised on the steps of Number 10 “to make a country that works for everyone”, progress on social reform and the new industrial strategy is expected in the coming weeks.

On Friday, Mrs May launched a review into how ethnic minorities and white working class people are treated by public services such as the NHS, schools, police and the courts.

Described as unprecedented, the audit aims to highlight racial and socioeconomic disparities and show how outcomes differ due to background, class, gender and income to “shine a light on injustices”.

Mrs May will chair the first meeting of her social reform committee this Thursday, with housing and racial disparity on the agenda.

There will also be a focus on a new industrial strategy, with the Prime Minister setting out her intention to make the UK the best country for innovative companies to grow, and improving the UK’s ability to turn scientific discoveries into world-beating companies.