May letter asks grassroots to back her Chequers plan

THERESA MAY and her Cabinet have launched an attempt to persuade Conservative Party members to back the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan that Brexiteers have labelled “irrelevant”.

Mrs May sent a letter outlining the case for her plan, with endorsements from Dominic Raab, Liam Fox and Michael Gove, to the Tory grassroots.

Eurosceptics questioned the decision to seek support for the Brexit blueprint, given the fact that the EU had effectively already rejected it.

It comes amid reports Mrs May plans to meet with senior ministers in September to discuss how best to prepare the UK for leaving the EU with no deal.

Officials and ministers are increasingly pessimistic about a deal being agreed with Brussels before the UK’S point of withdrawal in March 2019.

In the letter, sent to party members, Mrs May argues her Chequers plan “honours the result of the referendum, maintains the constitutional and economic integrity of our United Kingdom, and sets us on course for a productive relationship with our closest trading partners”.

She also defends her plan to agree a “common rule book” with the bloc covering a new “UK-EU free trade area”.

Peter Bone, the Tory Brexiteer, suggested seeking support was a waste of time. He said: “I think it is fairly clear that there is widespread disappointment with Chequers among grassroots members. Since Chequers has already been rejected, it is irrelevant.”